Rightfully ours!

 

I started a blog a few weeks ago about the Bureau of Land Management Legislative Proposals. It included Hardrock Mining Reform (re-stated at end of blog for reference) and I promised to expand on five items of concern. Since then, we have seen similar bills waiting for legislation, both pro- and anti-mining. It appears that government is working hard to revoke the rights we all take for granted in the General Mining Law of 1872.

Item #1 is “currently covered by the General Mining Law of 1872.”

This, if taken literally should make your skin crawl, at least it does mine! “Currently covered,” to me insinuates that option is being replaced by the leasing process further defined under the proposal.

This opinion is further supported by wording later on in the proposal…  “After enactment, mining for these metals on Federal lands will be governed by the new leasing process.” A little further on it states, “Existing mining claims will be exempt from the change to a leasing system.”

So first of all I am going to state that under any scenario of my experience with government officials, they interpret things literally and leave no room for confusion. If it doesn’t say it in black and white, it just isn’t so.

Is this the beginning of the end? If approved, it could be.

Would we even be able to stake claims? It doesn’t say that we can, so I’m going to assume we can’t. I’m going to say bluntly, my opinion is they are eliminating the claim staking process and therefore the 1872 Mining Law.  That law protects a claimholder, giving him rights that do not exist under a leasing process. Just one instance of what it covers would be access, which brings up a related subject on another government level and how they can circumvent a miner’s rights.

A fellow prospector called a few weeks ago and asked if we knew anything about a Black Hills Forest Service plan for withdrawal of public lands from mineral entry? We had and promised to get the word out there.

A phone call to the US Forest Service resulted in little except being added to a mailing list to keep us informed of progress. They did not, at that time, have anything but a general map of the Black Hills with areas proposed for withdrawal outlined. I was told that legal descriptions are not yet available and not much would happen until fall of this year.

 

I broached an opinion to a friend the other day. We never know "the real story" behind these government efforts, but looking at the big picture it appears that our failing economy needs to be bolstered... what better way than to take mineral rights away from our citizens and award them to the government which can then claim mineral reserves to back our dollar!

So our rights sit on a platter, which is being picked over by federal government on two levels… that we know about!

Under the heading Legislative Proposals -- page BH11, skip to Hardrock Mining Reform:

Page BH12: “The second legislative proposal institutes a leasing pro­cess under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 for certain minerals, gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, uranium, and molybdenum, currently covered by the General Mining Law of 1872. After enactment, mining for these metals on Federal lands will be governed by the new leasing process and subject to annual rental payments and a royalty of not less than five percent of gross proceeds. Half of the receipts will be distributed to the States in which the leases are located and the remaining half will be deposited in the Treasury. Existing mining claims will be exempt from the change to a leasing system. The proposal also increases the annual maintenance fees under the General Mining Law of 1872 and eliminates the fee exemption for miners holding ten or fewer min­ing claims. These changes will discourage speculators from holding claims that they do not intend to develop. Holders of existing mining claims for these minerals could voluntarily convert their claims to leases. The Office of Natural Resources Revenue will collect, account for, and disburse the hardrock royalty receipts. “