The announcement this week that the
federal government had compiled data to be used in considering a ban on
mining across 10 million acres of the Western United States raised the
blood pressure of many local residents, although it should have come as
no surprise.
This political
end-run around the 1872 Mining Law originated last fall when the Obama
administration announced out of one side of its mouth that the sage
grouse did not warrant a listing under the Endangered Species Act, while
out of the other side of its mouth it enacted a de facto “listing” in
the form of massive land-use restrictions. Part of that policy was a
two-year ban on mining across 10 million acres, including a large slice
of northern Nevada along the Oregon and Idaho border.
The
data released this week by the USGS was compiled over the past year and
will be used to justify any or all mining closures for the next 20
years. The temporary closures have already impacted Western Exploration
LLC and Quantum Minerals LLC, which along with Elko County and Nevada’s
Attorney General are suing the BLM and U.S. Forest Service.
Gov.
Brian Sandoval has taken the opposite approach, working with Interior
Secretary Sally Jewell to lessen the impact of restrictions. In January,
he proposed swapping about one-fifth of the withdrawn area – about
555,000 acres — for 394,000 alternative acres considered to be more
critical habitat for grouse.
The
maps released this week show two new chunks in Nevada as a result of
the governor’s intervention. The Nevada additions “were identified by
the state of Nevada as substitute areas to be considered for withdrawal
in lieu of other areas within the boundary of the Sagebrush Focal
Areas,” stated the USGS.
Last
month the governor also announced a deal between the Interior Department
and Newmont Mining Corp. that allows continued mining in exchange for
sagebrush landscape conservation across 1.5 million acres under Nevada’s
Conservation Credit System (CCS).
...Keeping big mining companies like
Newmont in business is important for northeastern Nevada, but it’s hard
to overestimate the impact federal restrictions will have on smaller
companies with less lobbying power, such as those that were exploring
for gold in northern Elko County before the ban.
There
is no question that Nevada has a wealth of minerals, as do other states
in the sagebrush zone. Besides gold, the USGS assessment also looks at
antimony, barite, bentonite, copper, gemstone, gypsum, hectorite, lead,
lithium, mercury, molybdenum, opal, silver, sunstone, tungsten, uranium,
zeolite and zinc.
America
needs to keep mining essential minerals to avoid dependence on other
countries, and reasonable policies are needed to balance the impacts of
mineral extraction with other public land uses...
No comments:
Post a Comment