NEVADA — U.S. to revise mining regulations

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has formed a task force to evaluate possible revisions to the “3,809 regulations” governing hard-rock mining on BLM lands.

In 1991, a similar task force concluded that two areas were in need of change, namely the “5-Acre threshold” provision (which permits a small operation simply to notify the BLM of its intentions rather than submit to a lengthy permitting process) and enforcement of existing regulations.

According to the BLM, revisions to the 5-Acre threshold would allow “greater management control over special areas, sensitive resource values [and] processing operations.”

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has said that the wording of the 5-Acre threshold could be rendered less vague and that the addition of environmental and reclamation performance standards should be considered.

The revised regulations are expected to take effect in March 1999, but not before the task force hits the road to solicit opinions from the public.

Scoping sessions were held in May in Reno, Denver and Spokane, and a comment period remains open until June 23. The BLM expects to have the revised regulations available for public review by April 1998.

Not everyone believes that U.S. mining regulations require adjustment. State and national mining associations maintain that revisions are unnecessary, as do most mining advocacy groups. Paul Jones of the Minerals Exploration Coalition says current problems would be better solved through the enforcement of existing regulations.

He adds that the BLM’s decision to revise the 3809 regulations was made only after it became clear to the government that it would be too difficult to alter the Mining Law, which was drafted in 1872.

In a related matter, the Northwest Mining Association (NWMA) has filed a lawsuit against Babbitt and the BLM, which seeks to invalidate new regulations designed to increase financial requirements for reclamation.

The suit charges that the new regulations were passed without a public consultation process, as required by federal law.

“The lawsuit is about the right of the nation’s small miner to receive notice of, and comment on, the regulations by which they must live,” says William Perry Pendley of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which is representing the NWMA.