A modern land run? Trump move opens Utah to mining claims under 1872 law
31/01/2018 12:00
By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's
decision to withdraw federal protections from millions of acres
of Utah wilderness will reopen much of the iconic terrain to
gold, silver, copper, and uranium land claims under a Wild
West-era mining law, according to federal officials.
Starting at 6 a.m. on Feb. 2 - the moment Trump's
proclamation reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monuments takes effect - private
citizens and companies will be allowed to stake claims for hard
rock mining in a process governed by the General Mining Law of
1872, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The process for staking a claim remains much as it did
during the Gold Rush: A prospector hammers four poles into the
ground corresponding to the four points of a parcel that can be
as big as 20 acres, and attaches a written description of the
claim onto one of them. A prospector then has 30 days to record
the claim at the local BLM office.
"We're working on getting information and new monument maps
ready for people interested in claims," said Utah Bureau of Land
Management spokesman Michael Richardson.
The costs of claiming are low: a $212 filing fee, and an
annual maintenance fee of $150. Unlike laws governing petroleum
extraction, there are no environmental guidelines specific to
hard rock mining, and no requirement to pay a royalty. The
claims provide prospectors mineral rights but not ownership of
the land.
The law covers mining for uranium, gold, silver, copper and
other precious metals, but excludes coal and petroleum.
URANIUM RUSH? MAYBE NOT
Conservation groups including the Southeastern Utah
Wilderness Alliance are concerned that new prospecting in the
area could cause environmental harm, but it's unclear whether
the rare opportunity to stake mining claims will draw much
interest.
The Bears Ears area is known to have uranium deposits, but
prices are currently in the dumps - at around $25 a pound
compared with $130 a decade ago - due to weak domestic demand
from nuclear reactors.
Kyle Kimmerle, whose family owns more than 100 uranium
mining claims in Utah, said he won't be rushing out for new
land.
"The current price of uranium is not likely to warrant any
new claiming," he said. "It would take $60-$70 for me."
U.S.-based uranium mining companies Energy Fuels UUUU.A
and Ur-Energy URG.A - both of which are pressing the White
House for uranium import tariffs - also said they were not
currently planning to run out into the Utah wilderness with
poles to stake claims.
But Energy Fuels wrote a letter in May asking the
administration to adjust the monument's boundaries to
accommodate its operations - and said there were "many other
known uranium and vanadium deposits located within the [original
boundaries] that could provide valuable energy and mineral
resources in the future."
When Trump announced his decision to shrink the monuments in
December, he billed it as a victory for local governments
against what he called abusive federal overreach on western
lands.
"Families and communities of Utah know and love this land
the best, and you know the best how to take care of your land
and how to conserve this land," he said at the time.
The administration has denied that it intended to boost
drilling or mining in the region, a policy it has pursued on
other federally protected lands.
The decision reduced the size of the 1.3-million-acre (0.5
million hectare) Bears Ears monument, created by President
Barack Obama in 2016, by more than 80 percent. It slashed the
1.9-million-acre (768,900-hectare) Grand Staircase-Escalante
monument, designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996, in half.
Republican Congressman John Curtis of Utah has since
proposed legislation to withdraw all of Bears Ears region from
future mining claims. But any claim submitted under the General
Mining law before the legislation passes would be honored,
Curtis' spokeswoman Katie Thompson said.
Conservation groups and Democratic lawmakers, including
Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, have long criticized the
General Mining law as out-of-date.
"It's really the last law still on the books from that
Manifest Destiny era encouraging a resources free-for-all," said
Lauren Pagel, policy director of Earthworks.
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(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Brian Thevenot)
((richard.valdmanis@thomsonreuters.com ; +1 617 312 6022;
Reuters Messaging:
richard.valdmanis.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: USA TRUMP/UTAH MINING