Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig said he would be "surprised" if a controversial mining reform provision is part of a federal budget bill when it comes before both houses of Congress for a vote later this year. The legislation would end a decadelong moratorium on converting mining claims on public land to private ownership. The bill also would increase the minimum fee for transferring mining claims to private ownership from $2.50 an acre to $1,000, or the market value of the land.
The rider attached to the budget bill would allow a mining company to develop the land or sell it to developers once the ore deposit is proven and the miners have taken ownership. Craig, who for more than a decade has led an effort to update the 1872 Mining Act, opposes allowing uses other than mining on the transferred land. "Mining law and its reform should be used for producing the metals and minerals for our industrial base and that alone," Craig told The Idaho Statesman in a telephone interview Tuesday.
The expanded transfer of public land was included in a provision by lawmakers, including the powerful House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., to promote rural development after mining.
Environmental groups say the provision could lead to privatization of more than 5 million acres of land with mining claims in the West for ski resorts, subdivisions and hunting lodges. "This is the largest land grab in the West since the opening of Indian Territory in Oklahoma in 1902," said Jon Marvel, executive director of the Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project, which opposes the bill.
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http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051207/NEWS01/512070312/1001/NEWS
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