Southern Nevada lands off limits to new mining for another 20 years

The Bureau of Land Management will publish a notice today in the Federal Register which immediately withdraws 1,500 square miles of federal land in southern Nevada for 20 years from mining to protect endangered species. The order does not affect existing mining operations, but blocks new mining claims. The area has hosted historical gold mining, and the U.S. Geological Survey says more mineral deposits remain in the region, which encompasses 945,343 acres of Clark and Nye Counties. The BLM identified 24 separate sites as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern in 1998 for the protection of the Mojave Desert Tortoise, the southwestern willow flycatcher, the Woundfin Minnow and the Virgin River Chub, and other species. The lands have been temporarily set side since the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002 was enacted by the U.S. Congress. The BLM extended that act in 2007. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has already successfully sued to ban uranium mining and exploration on one million acres near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, has advocated the permanent withdrawal of the southern Nevada land to mining...read more