A reinterpretation of a major provision of federal mining law likely will lead to the opening of new mines in Nevada.
The U.S.
Department of the Interior this month issued a new ruling on the so-called mill site provision of the Mining Law of 1872.
That provision says that for every 20 acres of public land staked as a mining claim a miner can also claim five acres for a mill site on which to process minerals and discard rock and other mining waste.
The provision became important in 1997 when the then Solicitor of the Interior John Leshy said that the law meant mining operations could claim only one mill site per mining claim, and not multiple mill sites as was routinely being done in the industry.
The department now, through an opinion of Deputy Solicitor Roderick Watson, reverses that opinion and says the provision does not limit the number of mill sites that can be attached to each claim.
"It's a very important decision," said Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association in Reno.
"This eliminates a great cloud of uncertainty.
Now we can proceed with the opening of new mines.
That coupled with new exploration going on right now means we should see some new projects coming on."
Fields said that the six-year old Leshy decision had made it difficult, if not impossible, to do mining on public lands.
Some environmental groups, however, have criticized the new ruling.
"It was done without public comment," said Whitney Painter, a spokeswoman for the Mineral Policy Center, a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.
According to Painter, mining waste is affecting groundwater, which is not covered by the federal Clean Water Act.
The industry uses an extraction process in which cyanide is applied to rock to bring gold to the surface.
The cyanide and other toxicants created in the process are then dumped on the mill site.
But she said the center doesn't necessarily want the number of mill sites restricted.
Instead, the group would like to see the multiple mill sites turned into lease arrangements rather than claims.
"That way they'd be subjected to a greater degree of scrutiny," said Painter.
The NMA's Fields disagrees, saying mill sites are still subject to myriad environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
"There is no rollback of environmental protection in this ruling," he said.
