Urge your Representative to Support HR 5060: Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2014 below.
July 10, 2014, Washington, D.C. – U.S. House of Representatives Peter DeFazio (OR-4) and Raúl M.Grijalva today introduced a long-needed overhaul of the 142-year-old law governing mining of minerals such as gold, silver, and copper on federally-managed public lands.
HR 5060, a bill to modify the requirements applicable to locatable minerals on public domain lands, consistent with the principles of self-initiation of mining claims, and for other purposes is known as the “Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2014.” Read bill text.
HR 5060: The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act would:
- Charge a royalty on minerals extracted from public lands. Unlike all 50 states and private landowners in the US, taxpayers charge no royalties for minerals. More than $300 billion worth have been given away since 1872.
- Allow mining to be balanced with other uses of public lands. Currently land managers believe the law requires them to permit mines, even if the land is better used for another purpose – like protecting Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Parks.
- Protect our drinking water by prohibiting mines that would require perpetual water pollution treatment. The current law contains no environmental provisions, even though the EPA has identified mining as the nation’s biggest toxic polluter. Research has found that over 75% of modern mines have polluted rivers, streams and groundwater, and an increasing number of mines will result in water pollution that lasts for hundreds to thousands of years or “in perpetuity.”
- Create over 10,000 jobs by funding the cleanup of the hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines. Unlike coal, hardrock mining has no cleanup fund. EPA estimates abandoned mine cleanup could cost $50 billion.
- End public land giveaways. The Mining Law allows private interests to purchase mineral bearing public lands for no more than $5/acre (although a moratorium on this process, known as patenting, has been annually renewed since 1994).
Read more at: Earthworks Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2014 Fact Sheet
