CORONADO

I’ve got to admit, this is one of the craziest things I’ve come across, but – what the hey – might as well use it. The World Resources Institute’s 1994 Information Please Environmental Almanac has this rundown on the 1872 Mining Law that’s still on the books.

World Resources Institute, “The 1872 Mining Law,” The 1994 Information Please Environmental Almanac, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1994), pp 164 – 166

It starts out by saying

The ‘patenting’ provisions of the 1872 Mining Law allow would-be miners to claim public lands for as little as $2.50 per acre, draining millions of dollars from the federal treasury. The law stipulates that claimants have only to do $100 worth of work on the land and give proof of a commercially viable mineral before they can ‘patent’ (meaning purchase) the land surface and all minerals within the claim.

I don’t know if $2.50 an acre was par for the course in 1872, but even a dog would call it a deal nowadays. The Almanac goes on to say:

"Claims patented in 1981 near Las Vegas, Nevada, for $1,124 are now worth $2 million, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) review. In Colorado, 17,000 acres that contain oil shale were patented for $42,500 and sold a few weeks later for $37 million. An Arizona developer now receives almost $300,000 per year from a Hilton hotel built on land he patented in 1968 for $155. Between 1970 and 1983, the GAO said, the government received less than $4,500 in return for patents that were estimated to be worth between $13.8 million and $47.9 million.

"Under the 1872 law, claimants are not even required to mine the land they patent. To maintain their claims, they need only pay $100 rent per year on the land. And if they do happen to produce salable minerals, the government gets none of the profits. Private landowners usually get royalties for minerals found on their lands, and the government collects 12.5 percent of the gross income from oil or gas production on its lands, but for minerals, if gets nothing. One Arizona copper mine, two miles across and one-half mile deep, takes only six hours to produce enough ore to recoup the $50,000 it cost the Phelps-Dodge Corporation to patent it several decades ago. The National Wildlife Federation estimated that federal taxpayers could gain $400 million per year if a royalty of 12.5 percent were charged for minerals produced on public lands.

The 1872 law also contains provisions that aggravate mining’s environmental damage, its critics say. One section establishes a ‘right to mine’ on public land, giving mining a higher priority than competing uses. Mining claimants can use this provision to tie up large tracts of public lands for decades. In addition, claimants are not required to restore the land they have mined out. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requires miners to post bonds of $2,000 per acre for reclamation, but the actual costs may be many times that.

All I can say is you’ve got to be a moron to not do some prospecting given this kind of proposition. Sine’s on the case now, and then maybe we’ll be able to skip collecting admission to see our show.

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