Mining Law

The 1872 Mining Law is the principle statute governing mining on federal public lands subject to it. It's a bare bones law—understandable for one written 143 years ago when the principle thrust of federal land policy was disposal. It has no environmental standards. These came later—piecemeal—with laws like the Clean Water Act, the Wilderness Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and with the land managing agencies surface mining regulations.

The antiquated law gives away all valuable minerals found on publicly owned lands and essentially gives away the land too.  What's especially mind boggling, is that the 1872 Mining Law remains in effect today—only the giveaways now includes foreign owned multinational mining companies as well as neerdowell individual living out some myth of rugged western individualism.

And why would the United States give away National Forest land, and minerals found, there worth millions of dollars, for $250 to $5.00 per acre? See the Bureau of Land Management's April 6, 2004 press release for the sale of 155 acres on Mount Emmons for $5.00 per acre.  Mount Emmons is also known as the Red Lady by the citizens of Crested Butte, Colorado, a small town where small homes sell for $1 million but 155 acres above the town just sold for $5.00 an acre.

Congress' failure to reform the archaic 1872 Mining Law has resulted in the giveaway of public resources and land reaching epic proportions and in a morass of court opinions interpreting the law.

The failure of Congress, along with the timidity of the land managing agencies, leaves mining as the highest and best use of the land—no matter what other values are at stake. Where National Forest and BLM lands are mineral in character (and even when they're not), as long as they're open to operation of the 1872 Mining Law, the Forest Service and BLM have a policy that they cannot say no to a reasonable mining plan.

So even today, the 1872 Mining Law's supremacy over federal public lands remains in effect with disastrous results for communities, clean water and the land.

The central provisions of the 1872 Mining Law are:

The 1872 Mining Law provides that "valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States . . . shall be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase." 30 U.S.C. § 22. Citizens can locate mining claims by discovering valuable mineral deposits on lands open to location. 30 U.S.C. §§ 22, 28. The 1872 Mining Law permits a claim holder to obtain a patent (fee title) to the lands encompassed by the mining claim he or she holds. 30 U.S.C. § 29.

For more information read the General Accounting Office: Hardrock Mining on Federal Lands. According to the report:

Thousands of mining operators have extracted billions of dollars worth of hardrock mineral from land now managed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) without being required to pay a federal royalty. In addition, some operators have abandoned hardrock mining sites and did not reclaim BLM land disturbed by their exploration, mining, and mineral processing operations.

See also - Understanding the 1872 Mining Law

Here are a few terms often used in discussion of mining issues:

1866 Lode Act:  The Act of July 26, 1866, declared all mineral lands owned by the public open to mineral exploration and location.  It applied only to lode claims and was amended in 1870 to include placer claims.  Congress replaced both two years later by the 1872 Mining Law, which remains in effect today.

1872 Mining Law:  Also known as the General Mining Law, the 1872 Mining Law was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.  Designed to settle the West, it remains virtually unchanged:  139 years later it still allows individuals or corporations to:

• Mine valuable hardrock minerals—including gold, silver, copper and nickel—from publicly owned lands (e.g. National Forests) for free. 

• Purchase publicly owned lands for $5.00/acre (lode claims) or $2.50/acre (placer).

For more information on the 1872 Mining Law see the Seattle PI and Earthworks.

Hardrock minerals:  The 1872 Mining Law applies only to what are called "hardrock" or "locatable" minerals.  These include gold, silver, platinum, copper, uranium, nickel or cobalt.

Common variety minerals:  These include sand, gravel and aggregate and do not come under the 1872 Mining Law.  In Josephine and Curry Counties essentially the only mineral production in years are common variety minerals (sand, gravel, crushed stone and talc).  See for example the 2007 USGS Mineral Yearbook for Oregon [Advance Release] and USGS 2008 Mineral Yearbook: Statistical Summary [Advance Release].