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A modern land run? Trump move opens Utah to mining claims under 1872 law

By Valerie Volcovici

 

Comb Wash cuts from north to south through Cedar Mesa in Bears Ears National Monument near Blanding, Utah, U.S., October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen/Files

 

WASHINGTON (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. The claims provide prospectors mineral rights, with no requirement to pay the government royalties, 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 and Ur-Energy - both of which are pressing the White House for limits on uranium imports - also said they were not currently planning to run out into the Utah wilderness with poles to stake claims.

 

Energy Fuels wrote a letter in May asking the administration to adjust the monument’s boundaries to accommodate its existing 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.”

 

A spokesman for Energy Fuels said Wednesday that the company has no intention of mining in any of the re-opened land and that its request to adjust boundaries would not have opened up new mining sites.

 

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 honoured, Curtis' spokeswoman Katie Thompson said.

Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona has urged quicker action, pressing Republican colleagues to ask the Interior Department to block mining claims sooner.

 

"If we’re serious about preventing mining and drilling in Bears Ears, the administration needs to take concrete action now,” Grijalva said this week.

Conservation groups and Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, have long criticized the General Mining law as out-of-date.

 

(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Brian Thevenot)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-01

[Get Real]

Probably beats the shit out of Bitcoin.

[ballpoint]

Whats to stop a bunch of environmentalists from rushing out and claiming the land, and then leaving it alone?

[boomerangutang]

This news makes me puke. I'd like to direct that puke on Donald Trump's bed while he's lying there tweeting and eating Big Macs.  Americans should be blocking this harmful initiative by every means.  Once it's done, it can't be undone.  There will thousands of claims all over the desert.  Hikers won't be able to cross those claims - and may be legally shot by claimants. All sorts of earth-moving machines will be driving around, making noise, creating dust and pollution.   Trump is to good governance what a shitting hippo is to table manners.

 

I was hiking in a wilderness park area near Lake Tahoe with four little girls (two were step-daughters).  On our way back from a mountain valley, a man came out with a gun and told us we couldn't continue to walk on the path we were on.  He said it was his claim (there were no fences or houses there).   I and the 4 little girls had to make a large detour, and got back to my truck as the sun was setting.

[elnet1]

9 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

was his claim

You may have just been on private property, not a mining claim.

 

I live 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe, a lot of private land owners don't like people crossing their private property because of the danger of vandalism and forest fires caused by smokers. I'll bet what that guy was trying to tell you, was that he had a "grow" and illegal marijuana plantation near by, not a mining claim. And I almost took a caretaker job on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe owned by a guy who said part of the duties was to marshall off the occasional hiker that crossed his private property, nothing to do with mining or the Mining Act of 1872.

 

And no, you can't legally shoot anyone that is crossing your mining claim, you can't shoot them even if you find someone "mining" on your claim, unless you want to be tried for manslaughter, you would call the sheriff or law enforcement and have them deal with it.

 

If you read the original article, someone making a claim under the mining act, doesn't own the land, just the right to mine the minerals there.

 

More info:

 

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/405680-claim-jumping-mining-violence.html

[janclaes47]

13 minutes ago, elnet1 said:

You may have just been on private property, not a mining claim.

 

I live 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe, a lot of private land owners don't like people crossing their private property because of the danger of vandalism and forest fires caused by smokers. I'll bet what that guy was trying to tell you, was that he had a "grow" and illegal marijuana plantation near by, not a mining claim. And I almost took a caretaker job on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe owned by a guy who said part of the duties was to marshall off the occasional hiker that crossed his private property, nothing to do with mining or the Mining Act of 1872.

 

And no, you can't legally shoot anyone that is crossing your mining claim, you can't shoot them even if you find someone "mining" on your claim, unless you want to be tried for manslaughter, you would call the sheriff or law enforcement and have them deal with it.

 

If you read the original article, someone making a claim under the mining act, doesn't own the land, just the right to mine the minerals there.

 

More info:

 

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/405680-claim-jumping-mining-violence.html

 

Don't let facts get in the way of good Trump hate rant.

[Scott]

Troll post and reply removed. 

[spidermike007]

Trump is hellbent on destroying any and all environmental regulations put into place over the past century, to safeguard the nation, and it's future. He has no vision. He cannot see tomorrow, much less look into the distant future. For him, everything is about instant gratification. Everything. So, there is no vision. No ability to see what the consequences of his actions are. If we are all very, very fortunate, he will have moved on to another world within the next decade. All that will be left will be his horrific legacy. And the stench, the crimes, the lies, the extraordinary lack of morality, ethics, and consideration for others, that he has left behind. 

[elnet1]

14 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

Don't let facts get in the way of good Trump hate rant

So true!

[elnet1]

On 1/31/2018 at 9:08 PM, boomerangutang said:

his claim (there were no fences or houses there)

 

A mining claim is made by four stakes in the ground at the corners (up to 20 acres, so far apart) or piling rocks to form a monument at the boundaries, there wouldn't be any physical fence or house there for the most part, unless its an old patented claim from way back when. I've been in areas where you see an old tobacco tin, with the paper detailing out the claim boundaries and rocks piled up on all four corners, thats all. If there are no minerals to be had, then you can't file a claim.

 

But back to the guy with a gun, honestly, a man brandishing a gun and you had four kids with you, that guy probably was insane anyways. And if he had something illegal there, it might have been booby trapped.  Again, this is common in the forested and rural areas of California nowdays with pop-up meth labs and pot grows everywhere.

Edited February 2, 2018 by elnet1
To add additional information for clarity

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.