H.R.5060 HARDROCK MINING AND RECLAMATION ACT OF 2014

[SLNugget]

Has this been brought up for discussion? I did a quickie search and did not find any threads. Regardless this bill was introduced 07/10/2014 and was sent to various committies. Please do not make this political. It is important IMHO to keep track of this and contact your elected representatives to voice your opinions. Here is a link to more information:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr5060

We, as small scale miners/prospectors, achieved a lot with the letter writing campaign to the Third Appellate Court in the Rinehart case. No reason we cannot do the same with this issue.

In the spirit of keeping your friends close and enemies closer here is a link to a group supporting this bill:

1872 Mining Law Reform Bill Introduced Today

 

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[Asmbandits]

Members opinions and feelings about political leaders and parties are counterproductive to resolving this issue. And if I am not mistaken not allowed by Treasurenet. The focus point here IMO is how we as small scale miners can prevent passage of this bill.

Yes I understand what you are saying SLN, whenever politics are discussed it usually doesn't turn out well in general as we are all free to have our own opinions and usually they differ from person to person. The very nature of the topic being discussed is 100% political, so just know that when posting it for public discussion people will discuss the the politics of the situation as most everyone has.

I will do whatever is in my power to help in any way to keep this from passing, Im not as hip as a lot of you are with your info/link posting ability, but I am a miner who owns a claim and my veiws are just as valid as the next, some of us have just been taken advantage of to the point where its hard not let our emotions leak into our comments, being a fellow miner im sure you understand.

 

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[SLNugget]

Yes I understand what you are saying SLN, whenever politics are discussed it usually doesn't turn out well in general as we are all free to have our own opinions and usually they differ from person to person. The very nature of the topic being discussed is 100% political, so just know that when posting it for public discussion people will discuss the the politics of the situation as most everyone has.

I will do whatever is in my power to help in any way to keep this from passing, Im not as hip as a lot of you are with your info/link posting ability, but I am a miner who owns a claim and my veiws are just as valid as the next, some of us have just been taken advantage of to the point where its hard not let our emotions leak into our comments, being a fellow miner im sure you understand.

I do understand and support everyones right to their opinions and right to voice them.

Now any suggestions on how to unite and defeat this bill. A letter written to our representatives is a way to begin the process. Personal letters rather than a bunch of form letters or petitions work best in my experience.

Guys, I am out of my comfort zone here so some help would be appreciated.

 

[chlsbrns]

I'll send letters and make calls!

 

[fowledup]

They are speaking of all things mined, not just the precious metals group. I'll tell you another group of folks that get real concerned when they here of these types of legislation and that's the gravel quarrys, and pits. Most of these guys run those plants on a shoe string budget and the business is very cutthroat. Between MSHA, DTSC, and the AIr resources board these guys get hammered. Industrial mining considers us small scale miners as an annoyance. There not gonna help us. The folks we are sending our monies to, to act as advocates for our rights are stretched very thin trying to put us back in the water and fighting the other pertinent court battles. What needs to happen, and we just showed we can do it with the letter writing campaign to force the publishing of the Rhinehart ruling, is to get even more organized and involved as individuals and as a community and continue to develop momentum of our own grass roots letter writing campaign.
The best news about this proposed legislation is that it only has a 4% chance of reaching fruition. However your are one hundred percent correct in that we should inundate these people with a flood of letters every time they do anything contrary to our rights as miners. We keep doing that and they will move on to a less involved group and target.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well I see that the "Greenies" are spreading more lies with their letter. First off, the mining law of 1877 states that only citizens of the United States are allowed to file a claim. Foreign parties are forbidden from making a claim for resources located on public lands. Now if they want to rent/lease land from a private land owner, that's another story.

Once again the "Greenies" are trying to cut the throats of everyone in this country. If we as a country don't mine, we don't survive. PERIOD!!!! Any country that would allow a group to close down mining is one a quick route to loosing their sovereignty. Can you imagine if the United States had to buy all metals, coal and everything else that is mined from another country? That's where we are headed if we don't all band together and stop this "Green Machine" and do it soon!

They (the "Greenies") keep harping on all of the bad practices of the past instead of looking at the positive improvements made in mining practices in the last few decades. They use scientists for hire that will spit out what ever report they need to meet their agenda and ignore true science that shows just how wrong they are.

This bill is something that everyone involved in mining at ANY LEVEL should pay attention to!!! Contact your representative(s) and explain to them how important it is that the mining laws not be changed without major input by the mining community as a whole. DO NOT allow the "Greenies" to cause yet another snafu that will take years if not decades to repair.

Edit: Do our mining laws need to be changed? Yes they do! If for no other reason than to provide more protection for miners from the Greenies as well as Govt agencies like the EPA, USFS and BLM which harass small scale miners every chance they get! Even those agencies that have been found to be in the wrong by the courts have gone unpunished and in many cases have received a pat on the back by those in charge. THAT IS JUST WRONG!!!!!

 

[SLNugget]

Here is a link with the info on how to contact your representative. Be polite, clearly state your reason(s) for opposing the bill.

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/US-Congress.shtml

 

[IMPDLN]

This is a real bad piece of legislation. I didn't have to read very much of this document to see that they are basically trying to shut down mining all together. They even went so far as trying to change definitions of terms. I can't see this being anything but a problem for any miners, big or small. This pile of worthless paper needs to go directly into circular file 13 and fast. Dennis

 

[goldenmojo]

Seemed like very ambiguous language right after the long disclaimer part. I see another Federal Dept with a large budget about to be established. They will be left alone to write whatever type of rules that they want, involving just about anything they want to cover and the disclaimer will be null and void. Those that would be affected by the rules that they concoct will be exempted as long as the palms of the scribes and anointed(appointed) ones keep getting greased. Downward slide here we come.

 

[SLNugget]

I was expecting or rather hoping for a bigger response to this issue. It is tiresome dealing with these type issues all the time. But, that is exactly the goal of those individuals and organizations opposed to mining, iincluding small scale mining. They are well organized and relentless opponents. Please take a few minutes to acquaint yourself with the issue and contact your representatives to voice your opinion. Contact info is posted in this thread so it's not that difficult. This issue is not just about an isolated case in one state (that is rapidly spreading to other states) but about the entire mining industry nationwide.
Be proactive and take action to defeat this bill before it becomes law. Do not be the guy whining and moaning after the fact when you did nothing to help defeat this bill.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

I do understand and support everyones right to their opinions and right to voice them.

Now any suggestions on how to unite and defeat this bill. A letter written to our representatives is a way to begin the process. Personal letters rather than a bunch of form letters or petitions work best in my experience.

Guys, I am out of my comfort zone here so some help would be appreciated.

We all need write/call/e-mail our representatives; if they are not supportive, vote them out. And this is political. The entire current administration needs to be removed and those that support them need to be voted out. This admin is in bed with the wacko environmental groups. Look at which candidates the Sierra Club and other environment groups support and vote against them! Get out and vote this week.

And write those letters, e-mails and even call YOUR representatives now.

 

[Tonto]

Make no mistake. This Act is designed to prohibit mining in the future except to those mega corporations that can mine enough to pay the 8% royalty. Small scale miners will be prohibited from using anything but a pan. No hard rock mines will be available for claiming, much less developing. Current mines will be more highly regulated, and expanding operations will be out of the question. The jobs associated with this law will be designed for the environmentalists who will be on the inside track to get them. The only jobs that will become available to the average working man will be operating the construction equipment, and the manual labor.

The statistics thrown about by the EPA are not verifiable, and therefore not reliable. The EPA, and other government agencies are notorious for compiling false data to mislead the uninformed and uneducated into thinking this is a serious issue. Remember global warming? Are we not still paying through the nose for that junk science? Who besides the EPA has the authority to conduct such research for the government? It's like asking Jesse James to provide data on how many banks he robbed. This is just another power play to totally control government lands. The tax burden for the working class will not diminish no matter how much royalties increase. It will however, increase the size and power of the bureaucracies charged with managing it. Those environmental groups associated with support of this bill stand to earn millions in sponsored outdoor tourist type, pay as you go concessions within the forest, deserts, mountains, and streams.
I'm not saying that some of the proposed changes are unreasonable. Increasing royalties is certainly not, but that isn't going to affect new mining as much as it is existing mines. There will be few if any new mines able to pass muster. Look how long it took the nickel mine in Michigan to be approved, and that is under existing regulations. This is another attempt to close public lands to all but the wealthy, elite, and/or pagan earth worshipers. I know we can't say these things in a letter of opposition to this bill, but we need to be educated about the underlying motivations of these environmentalists and make a reasonable and verifiable effort to illuminate congress about the pitfalls of the radical changes being proposed. Having said that, I'm not optimistic that congress will do the right thing. These organizations are extremely wealthy, and give millions to political campaigns and lobbyists. Still, we must try.