NMA approves of new legislation to update General Mining Laws

The National Mining Association’s (NMA) President and CEO, Hal Quinn, says the introduction of legislation, the ‘Locatable Mineral Royalty and Reclamation Act’ (H.R. 3201) and the ‘Good Samaritan Bill’ (H.R. 3203), to amend the General Mining Laws are “good steps forward in updating the Laws. For the last 15 years, NMA has sought changes to the law that would provide the statutory certainty needed to attract investment in US minerals mining and to keep high-paying mining jobs here at home.”

Quinn continued by saying that the NMA has “been a long-time supporter of Good Samaritan legislation to provide limited liability protection for entities that voluntarily cleanup abandoned mine sites that are the legacy of historic mining activities pre-dating modern environmental requirements. 

“The ‘Locatable Minerals Royalty and Reclamation Act’ addresses many of the policy objectives America’s mining community has identified as important to help meet more of this nation’s minerals needs from domestic resources-much of it found on federal lands. NMA supports an abandoned mine lands fund to restore sites that were mined prior to modern mining’s land reclamation requirements; the statutory elimination of the option to sell federal lands to mining companies while providing for needed security of tenure; and fair payment to the government for the use of federal lands.  

“The consequences of getting mining reform right are substantial. US metals, or hardrock, mining employed nearly 50,000 people in 2007 and accounted for another 200,000 jobs. With a total payroll of $12.5 billion, these jobs generated $4.2 billion in personal income and payroll taxes. Mining is the economic engine of rural communities throughout the West and provides the materials for much of US manufacturing. If the United States is going to attract more than its current 7% share of worldwide investment in metals mining, we need a modern mining law. Only then will we be able to meet our growing need for metals in an economy that will increasingly rely on metals in electronics, new energy sources and battery technologies as well as in national defence.”

US Representatives Doug Lamborn (Colorado) and Rob Bishop (Utah) introduced this legislation.