Mining Policy Exam 2 Flashcards

plus a few water terms

What minerals does the Claim-Patent System Govern?

Locatable" hardrock minerals, including metallic minerals (gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, uranium) and non-metallic industrial minerals (fluorspar, mica, gypsum, gemstones)

The 5-Step Process for Staking and Maintaining a Claim:

1. Prospecting & Discovery: Prospecting is free on open public domain lands[6]. The locator must discover a valuable mineral deposit[2][10].

2. 2. Location & Staking: The miner stakes physical claim boundaries on the ground[2][10].

3. 3. Recording: The locator files formal record of the claim with the local county recorder and the BLM[2].

4. 4. Annual Maintenance: The claim is maintained year-to-year by performing $100 worth of development work or paying an annual federal maintenance fee (~$115–$200/year)[2].

5. 5. Patenting (Historical): Prior to FY 1994/1995, a claim holder who proved a valid valuable discovery could purchase fee-simple land title from the U.S. government for $2.50 per acre (placer claims) or $5.00 per acre (lode claims)[10].

Patented Mining Claim:

Transfer of full fee-simple ownership of both the surface estate and the underlying mineral estate into private property

Moratorium as of 1994 —> All modern active claims exist strictly as unpatented claims

Unpatented Mining Claim

Grants the locator exclusive possessory rights to develop and extract minerals and use necessary surface resources, while fee-simple title to the land remains with the federal government[11].

Mining Dominance (under 1872 law)

Enacted under the premise that mineral exploration should have preference over all other land uses as an economically superior pursuit

Agency Reluctance to Say NO

Because the 1872 Law extended an "express invitation" to enter public lands, federal agencies (USFS and BLM) historically viewed mining as a statutory right rather than a discretionary privilege[16].

US Forest Service (USFS) 1974 Regulations:

Required a Plan of Operations for operations causing "significant disturbance" and mandated site reclamation, but lacked enforcement provisions (such as fines or shutdown authority) and covered less than 1/3 of open public lands[16][17].

BLM Surface Management Rules :

1981 Rules:* Exempted operations under 5 acres from formal approval (requiring notice only); these <5-acre mines comprised 80% of BLM mines and lacked non-compliance fines.

BLM mine 2000–2001 Tiers (In Effect Today):

1. Casual Use: Negligible surface disturbance; no notice or plan required

2. 2. Notice-Level: Exploration disturbing 5 acres or less; notice required before work begins

3. 3.Plan-Level:** Surface disturbance greater than 5 acres or operations in sensitive areas (e.g., Areas of Critical Environmental Concern

Why has Comprehensive legislative overhaul of the 1872 Law has stalled?

opposition from the mining industry, Western political resistance, and debates over royalties and property rights.

Ways the 1872 law HAS changed

Severing energy (1920) and common variety (1947) minerals into separate statutory leasing/sales systems[2].

Enacting the 1994/1995 patent moratorium[2][12].

Passing the Surface Resources Act of 1955 to restrict claims strictly to legitimate mining (banning private cabins)[25].

Executing administrative and legislative land withdrawals[21].

Closed Lands to mining

Lands closed to mineral entry include National Parks, National Monuments, Wilderness Areas Wild Rivers (Wild & Scenic Rivers Act), and USFWS Wildlife Refuges.

Presidential / Executive Pathway of mining withdrawal

Executed under FLPMA §204 (Secretary of the Interior can withdraw <5,000 acres for non-limited time periods,or >5,000 acres for up to 20 years, or emergency withdrawals up to 3 years) or via Executive Orders / Antiquities Act National Monument designations

Legislative / Congressional Pathway of mining withdrawl

Place-specific or system-wide statutes passed by Congress

(e.g., Mining in the Parks Act of 1976, Wilderness Act of 1964, North Fork Watershed Protection Act in MT)

Mineral Lease:

Limited-term possessory right; the landowner retains fee title and collects rent, royalties, and bonuses, while the lessee gets exclusive rights to extract and access minerals[28][29].

Mineral License:

Revocable, non-transferable, and non-inheritable permission to extract minerals under specified terms[28][29].

Profit à Prendre:

A nonpossessory, usufructuary commercial right to enter land and remove minerals; can be transferred, inherited, and held exclusively without expiring, while allowing the surface owner reasonable surface use[28][29].

Royalty Interest

Gets a cut of the revenue generated from the mining operations, but does not pay for operational/extraction costs

Mineral Fee Estate:

Full fee-simple ownership of minerals in place arising from grants or reservations; functions as the dominant estate, allowing the mineral holder to develop resources even if operations disrupt the surface owner[25][29].

General NEPA Trigger:

Mining triggers National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review when a land management agency formally approves or modifies a Plan of Operations (a major federal action)[30][31].

BLM NEPA Trigger (Acreage-Based Standard):

proposed operations causing cumulative surface disturbance greater than 5 acres, or operations located in designated Areas of Critical Environmental Concern

USFS Trigger (Impact-Intensity Standard):

Triggered whenever proposed mining operations will cause a "significant disturbance of surface resources," regardless of strict acreage.

FAST-41 (Title 41 of the FAST Act, 2015):

Establishes a coordinated federal Permitting Dashboard to improve transparency, multi-agency coordination, and tracking of NEPA review schedules for qualifying major infrastructure and critical mineral mining projects.

Public Domain Lands:

Federal lands acquired by the U.S. government that remain unreserved and open to general public land entry and mineral location under the 1872 Law.

A valuable Mineral Deposit:

What a mining claim discovery must contain, required under the 1872 Law.

Prudent Man Test:

Historical judicial test validating a claim if evidence justifies a person of ordinary prudence in expending labor and means with a reasonable prospect of developing a valuable mine[12].

Marketability Rule (1968):

the mineral deposit can be extracted and sold at a profit under economic conditions existing at the time of claim application.

Rule of Capture:

Oil and gas legal doctrine granting ownership of all petroleum extracted from a well on one's land, even if drawn from beneath neighboring property.

Unitization (& Pooling):

Pooling combines small tract interests for a single well; Unitization coordinates joint operations across an entire shared oil/gas field to maximize recovery efficiency and eliminate duplicate wells

General Mining Law 1872

Claim-Patent system. The federal government receives no royalties from mineral extraction. Governs "locatable" hardrock minerals like gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and uranium

Mineral Leasing Act of 1920

The federal government retains land ownership and collects bonuses, annual rent, and mandatory production royalties. Governs "leasable" energy and fertilizer minerals like oil, natural gas, coal, oil shale, and phosphate

Materials Disposal Act of 1947 (Multiple Use Surface Act 1955)

The federal government retains land title and receives direct commercial purchase payments or permit sales. Governs "salable" common variety materials like sand, gravel, stone, clay, and pumice.

Water Right Perfection

demonstrating intent, diverting water, applying water to benefical use

Murphy Rights

Within Montana, the protection of instream flow with a priority date of 1970. It was the first time that instream rights were considered a beneficial use.

McCarren Amendment

What allowed the state to take the federal government to court over water rights issues

What are the 4 challenges of water management?

(1) Hydrologic Mobility: Water is mobile and is not neatly contained within political boundaries

(2) Scarcity: Usable freshwater is scarce and must be allocated sparingly

(3) Public vs. Private Value Tensions: Balancing instream public ecological needs against private economic extraction

(4)Spatial Disparities & Virtual Water: Water supply and human demand are geographically uneven across regions.