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Don't Let an Antiquated Law Threaten America's Special Places

Hardrock Mine Dump in ColoradoWhen the 1872 Mining Law was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, the typical prospector worked with a mule and a pick axe. The "mom and pop" operations looking for hardrock minerals, like gold, silver, and copper, have drastically changed in the last 135 years.  However, the law governing the mining industry has not.

Modern mines are enormous operations that leave behind scarred landscapes needing extensive clean-up. Hardrock mining can cause significant impacts on the environment, potentially affecting ground and surface waters, aquatic life, vegetation, soils, air, wildlife, and human health.

The 1872 Mining Law is outdated and it is time for Congress to update it. According to the EPA, hardrock mining is the number one toxic polluter in the United States and has polluted 40 percent of the stream and headwaters of western waters. A change is needed.

Thanks to House Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall and Representative Jim Costa, the authors of the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (HR 2262), we now have an opportunity to reform the 1872 Mining Law -- and help make irresponsible mining a thing of the past by insisting that mining companies pay for clean up and take environmental standards into consideration for future mines.

Please tell Congress today to support this long overdue bill.

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Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Support the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (HR 2262)

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

If you have not done so, please consider cosponsoring the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (HR 2262).

The mining industry was different over 135 years ago, when the 1872 Mining Law was signed into law and it was written to govern the archetypal "miner 49'er" -- a prospector with a mule and a pick axe. Today, hardrock mining is largely the business of billion dollar, multinational corporations operating in a global market.

Modern hardrock mines are enormous operations that leave behind scarred landscapes and the extraction of metals such as gold, silver and copper, can cause significant impacts on the environment, potentially affecting ground and surface waters, air, wildlife, and human health.

We need change now and the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, introduced by Representatives Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Jim Costa (D-CA), gives us an opportunity to reform the antiquated 1872 Mining Law.

This bill would require hard-rock miners to pay a royalty that would go into a fund to clean up abandoned mine sites and establish long overdue environmental standards for future mining on federal land.

If you have already cosponsored this bill, thank you for your leadership. If you have not, please consider supporting this long overdue reform.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
September 20, 2007


Background Information

 Earthjustice At Work

Hardrock Mining Water Run Off

Earthjustice has long been working to stop the destruction of water through the practice of mining. Click below to learn more:

- Earthjustice helped block the Kensington Mine from using Lower Slate Lake as a tailings dump.

- Earthjustice helped stop mining company from reopening an abandoned gold mine adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, threatening three major watersheds with acid-laced pollution.

The 1872 Mining Law governs hardrock mining on 270 million acres of public-domain lands -- mostly in the Rocky Mountain West and Alaska. 

Under the 1872 Mining Law, any U.S. citizen (including foreign companies with subsidiaries incorporated in the U.S.) can freely enter public lands to explore for minerals. No permit is needed. Only a small subset of public domain lands are excluded, like national parks.

According to the current Mining Law, once you discover a valuable hardrock mineral, you can then establish your right to mine that mineral by staking a claim. In practice, the federal government rarely checks to see if you've actually made a valuable discovery.

Once a claim is staked, the federal government has historically treated the claim as equivalent to a right to mine. All other types of mine proposals, like coal, on public lands must be weighed against other potential land uses before mining can begin. However, federal land management agencies have consistently argued that they cannot deny hardrock mining proposals because of the 1872 Mining Law -- federal land managers insist that, in the eyes of the Mining Law, mining is the highest and best use of public lands.

To make matters worse, once a claim is staked, the owner may purchase the land for either $2.50 or $5 an acre depending on the type of mineral deposit found. Some claims made under this law have never mined, but used to aquire land to turn into fancy resorts and other kinds of developments.

The mining industry was different 135 years ago when the 1872 Mining Law was signed into law. Today, mining is largely the business of billion dollar, multinational corporations operating in a global market. And many of the largest mining companies operating in the United States are foreign owned.

Modern mines are enormous operations causing significant impacts on the environment, such as:

  • Water Impacts -- Mining's most serious impact on western communities is water pollution. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, mine waste has contaminated more than 40 percent of the headwaters of western watersheds.
  • Human Health Impacts -- The hardrock mining industry releases billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment each year. In 2001 alone, the hardrock mining industry released 2.8 billion pounds of toxic waste, according to the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory.
  • Wildlife Impacts -- The toxic pollution released by hardrock mines also impacts wildlife. Acid mine drainage can destroy entire streams, killing all aquatic life. The average mine disturbs over a thousand acres of land -- pushing wildlife out of their natural habitat.
  • Taxpayer Impact -- Since 1872, the Mining Law has forced taxpayers to give away more than $245 billion in publicly owned minerals. Oil, gas, and coal mines pay anywhere from 8 to 12.5 percent of the value of minerals they take from public lands back to the public. Plus taxpayers are on the hook for cleaning up the mess left behind by hardrock mining.

The time for change is now.

With the leadership of Representatives Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Jim Costa (D-CA), the authors of the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (HR2262), we now have a chance to reform the 1872 Mining Law.

Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 would require hard-rock miners to pay a royalty that would go into a fund to clean up abandoned mine sites and assist mining communities. The bill would also establish long overdue environmental standards for future mining on federal land.

What can you do:

Please take a moment to tell your representative to support the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007. This long overdue reform on hardrock mining is critically needed to protect America’s special places. Please tell Congress the time is now!