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Report: Abandoned Mines Pose Safety Risk

Posted on: Friday, 14 March 2008, 12:00 CDT

U.S. Senate panel considers changes to 135-year-old mining law

Mines: Rising prices prompt new interest

Hundreds of abandoned mines dot the new Cerrillos Hills park and nearby federal lands, some with vertical shafts dropping more than 100 feet into the earth. Around New Mexico, an estimated 15,000 abandoned coal, copper, uranium and other mineral mines pose dangers to the environment and people, according to the state Energy, Minerals and Mining Department.

A report released Tuesday by the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining analyzed data from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and found the number of metal mining claims within five miles of cities and towns around the West had climbed from 35,350 in 2003 to 51,000 in 2008. According to the report's online map, Santa Fe has

168 metal mining claims within five miles and Albuquerque has 183.

Today, the U.S. Senate Energy Committee lead by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., holds a hearing on changing the 135-year-old federal mining law to reclaim abandoned mines and make mining companies pay for the reclamation.

It is the third hearing since January on proposed changes to the 1872 Mining Law. The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version in the fall, approving changes to a law that cheered environmentalists and upset mining advocates including Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Testifying before the committee will be officials from the Navajo Nation, who oppose renewed uranium mining efforts but support coal mining. Also testifying will be officials from Cibola County, which could benefit from renewed uranium mining.

Bingaman "definitely thinks the law should be revised," said Maria Najera, a spokeswoman for the senator. But the senate is still working on its version of the bill.

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. said in an earlier news release he thinks the Senate version needs to focus on making new mining companies pay royalties, replace mining patents and establish an abandoned mine reclamation fund to clean up old sites.

The 1872 mining law was established to encourage expansion into the West. It allowed miners to file a claim, giving them the right to dig up minerals but no right to the land. Miners could also buy patents for $2.50 to $5 an acre, which gave them title to the land around a claim. Congress stopped granting new patents in 1994. Unlike with oil, gas and timber companies, mining on federal lands has been exempt from paying fees and royalties. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the value of hardrock mineral production from federal lands in 2005 at $600 million.

The rising cost of many minerals including uranium and gold is prompting renewed interest in mining around the West. U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. said the mining claims in that state had risen more than 200 percent in four years as the price of gold, silver, gypsum and molybdenum climbed.

"Today, Colorado and the American West are experiencing a modern day 'mineral rush' while our mining laws are stuck in the 19th century," said Salazar in a statement after an earlier Energy Committee hearing.

Environmental groups say mining companies have laid to waste a wide swath of land across the West. Hardrock mining was the top source of toxic pollution in 2006, producing 1.2 billion pounds of chemical waste, according to the Environmental Working Group.

The House version of the Mining Act reform bill would require both existing and new mining companies to pay a royalty; give federal agencies like the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service the ability to prevent mining in sensitive areas and require mining companies to pay for cleaning up contamination.

Domenici said mining law reforms need to make sure U.S. mining companies are competitive in a global market. "While there is a great deal of support for weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels, it is not so easy to do the same with minerals, and, in fact, it might be counterproductive," Domenici said in his statement.

Already, the U.S. imports a large percentage of its major minerals, according to the mining industry. The country imports 100 percent of

17 hardrock minerals, including manganese, from countries such as China, South Africa, Mexico and Russia.

Source: The Santa Fe New Mexican

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