POLICY SUMMARY:
mining
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FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS
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The 1872 law governing mining on the public domain is antiquated and should be reformed. The so-called "wise use" movement, which is funded by major mining and oil companies, is trying to prevent this needed reform. [Res. 35, 1991] This movement wants to transfer federal lands to state and private ownership. Efforts to appease this movement should be resisted, as by easing environmental restrictions and preventing environmentalists from going to court. [Res. 11, 1992] As an example, the five-acre millsite restriction in the current law (i.e., preventing use of additional acreage for such uses as tailing piles and ponds) should be enforced and not weakened. The 1872 Mining Law should be reformed so that agencies can determine when other public values exceed mineral values and so that they can require a reclamation plan, with a bond, and obtain a fair return for use of public resources. Moreover, patenting of public lands (i.e., privatization) should be ended. [Res. 6, 1999; Res. 21, 2002] In addition, the reforms should allow federal agencies to determine whether mining should be allowed at all. If mining is allowed, then these agencies should require a plan of reclamation, require that a bond should be posted, and obtain a fair return for the use of public resources. [Res. 21, 2002]
An earmarked fund should be established to clean up abandoned hard-rock mines. It should be funded by taxes on current hard-rock mining. Those who once owned these mines can no longer be found, and no one wants to take on the clean-up task. Nearly 20 percent of all rivers in the nation are now polluted by such abandoned mines, and 40 percent of all headwater streams in the West. Pollution from shafts driven into slopes for metaliferous ores are the main problem. There are now almost a half million such mines. [Res. 23, 2005]
Heap leach mining, which uses cyanide and other dangerous chemicals to extract gold and then is stored in open tailing ponds, should be banned in the Pacific Northwest because of the danger it poses to plant and animal life. In any event, performance bonds should be posted that are large enough to assure that the land is restored to its natural state. [Res. 11, 1993]
Because heap-leach mining for gold in Nevada in the Carlin trend releases problematic amounts of mercury, which pollutes water bodies to the east and north of the mines and poses public health hazards, the amounts of mercury released should be carefully monitored on a monthly basis (by the state EPA) and immediate remedial action taken if large amounts of mercury are emitted. [Res. 11, 2006]
The legislature of Nevada took appropriate action in requiring monitoring of these mercury emissions on a monthly basis; moreover, the state should issue an annual report showing that the mining companies have complied with this requirement. [Res. 20, 2007]
13,000 acres at the entrance to the Cave Creek Canyon in Arizona should be withdrawn from mineral entry by the Forest Service to protect the area's unique biodiversity from a proposed open pit gold mine. [Res. 2, 1991]
All federal lands in and near the Bodie State Historical Park in California (within the Bodie Bowl) should be withdrawn from entry under federal mining laws so as to better protect this outstanding, historic ghost town from new mining ventures. [Res. 8, 1992]
No special use permit should be issued by local county authorities for a mine to extract clay (for "kitty litter") from a site on BLM land in Washoe County, Nevada which is next to housing developments and an Indian colony north of Reno-Sparks because of the problems that would be created of dust, noise, traffic, and water use. [Res. 11, 2001]
No mine, such as the "New World Mine" proposed by Noranda, should be developed on the periphery of Yellowstone National Park because of the risk that it would pose to surface waters (from acidic runoff), to a designated Wild River (to the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River) and to a national park. The mine is another example of the abuse and give away of public resources that can occur under the Mining law of 1872, which needs to be replaced with an environmentally sound and fiscally-prudent law. [Res. 3, 1994]
The Thompson Creek molybdenum mine on tributaries of the Salmon River in Idaho should not be enlarged in ways that dump acid drainage into these tributaries and thereby threaten critically important fisheries and other outstanding values. [Res. 21, 1998]
The withdrawal of 1.2 million acres from mineral entry in the Siskiyou National Forest of Oregon should be maintained and made permanent. The withdrawal made at the end of the Clinton Administration should not be shrunk by 90% as the Bush Administration proposes to do.. Rare plants and key wildlife habitat are threatened by mining in that forest. [Res. 21, 2002]
No open pit mine should be developed within the Buckhorn mountains of Washington state because of the danger posed by toxic tailings to surface waters and the destruction of critical wildlife habitat. The proposal to mine there by the Battle Mountain Gold Company is flawed both in scope and design and should be rejected. [Res. 13, 1995] It would risk environmental damage because of the acid-generating rock that would be exposed, as well as the use cyanide. No legislation should be enacted to exempt this mine from the five-acre millsite limitation. [Res. 12, 1999]
The government of British Columbia should reject proposals to build a new 160 km road in the watershed of the Taku River to provide access to a re-opened Tulsequah Mine, which would adversely affect habitat there for such species as grizzly and black bear, wolves, coyote, lynx, mountain goats and sheep and salmon (largest producer in B.C.). [Res. 26, 1999]
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