Help Us Reform the 1872 Mining Law - Send a Quick Letter Today
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The 1872 Mining Law was passed only seven years after Congress abolished slavery and nearly five decades before women won the right to vote. It is surely time to update it.
The antiquated Mining Law allows mining interests to take valuable hardrock minerals from public lands without royalty payments to the taxpayer. The law also allows mining
interests to buy valuable mineral bearing public lands at 1872 prices,
which translates to no more than $5 per acre, and does not sufficiently
insure restoration of degraded resources after the mining operation ends.
The Rogue Basin has hundreds, if not thousands, of abandoned mines with
unknown discharges of toxic heavy metals. Southwest Oregon's rivers are
further threatened by ongoing mining in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, tributaries of the Wild and Scenic Rogue River and in key watersheds for coho recovery.
Shockingly, the miner who was convicted in late 2009 for illegally mining on Sucker Creek is now proposing an expanded mining
operation in the same key watershed despite the fact that he filed for
bankruptcy and did not restore the first damaged site. Guess who paid
for the restoration there? You did via your taxes.
CLICK HERE to send a letter to Oregon's congressional delegation asking for reform of the 1872 Mining Law.
Visit www.kswild.org/mining for more background information.
