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GAO-19-436R 1 (2019-09-18)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaeabs0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G A O U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 September 18, 2019 The Honorable Tom Udall Ranking Member Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations United States Senate Hardrock Mining: BLM and Forest Service Hold Billions in Financial Assurances, but More Readily Available Information Could Assist with Monitoring Dear Senator Udall: The General Mining Act of 1872 encouraged the development of the nation's mineral resources by allowing individuals to stake claims and obtain exclusive rights to the gold, silver, copper, and other valuable hardrock mineral deposits on land belonging to the United States.1 Since then, thousands of operators have extracted billions of dollars' worth of hardrock minerals from land managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service.2 However, some operators did not reclaim-or clean up-thousands of acres of federal land disturbed for exploration, mining, and mineral processing when their operations ceased.3 Some of these disturbed lands pose serious environmental and physical safety hazards, such as contaminated soil, open mine shafts, and decaying structures. To help ensure lands will be reclaimed, BLM and the Forest Service have issued regulations requiring all hardrock mining operators to reclaim disturbed land when operations cease and provide bonds or other financial assurance, such as cash or certificates of deposit, to guarantee reclamation.4 Operators are to provide a reclamation plan and financial assurances to BLM or 1Under the mining laws Congress has made public lands available to people for the purpose of mining valuable mineral deposits and not for other purposes. The obvious intent was to reward and encourage the discovery of minerals that are valuable in an economic sense. U.S. v. Coleman, 390 U.S. 599, 602 (1968) (internal citations omitted). Federal minerals are commonly classified as locatable, leasable, or saleable. Locatable minerals include those minerals that are not leasable or saleable, for example, copper, lead, zinc, magnesium, gold, silver, and uranium. For the purposes of this report, we use the term hardrock minerals to refer to locatable minerals. Leasable minerals include oil, gas, coal, phosphate, and potash. Saleable minerals include common sand, stone, and gravel. 2BLM manages over 260 million acres of public lands located primarily in the western half of the United States. BLM's state, district and field offices generally oversee hardrock operations within its jurisdiction. The Forest Service manages approximately 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands throughout the United States. Forest Service headquarters, regions, national forests and grasslands, and ranger districts manage hardrock operations. 3Reclamation can vary by location but generally involves such activities as regrading and reshaping the disturbed land to conform with adjacent land forms and to minimize erosion; removing or stabilizing buildings and other structures to reduce safety risks; removing mining roads to prevent damage from future traffic; and establishing self- sustaining vegetation. Reclamation can also involve isolation, control, or removal of acid-forming or toxic substances, as well as post-mining monitoring, maintenance, or treatment. 443 C.F.R. § 3809.552; 36 C.F.R. § 228.13. Under the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976, BLM issued regulations, effective in 1981, that required all mining operators to reclaim BLM land disturbed by hardrock mining. In 2001, BLM regulations began requiring all mining operators to provide financial assurances before beginning GAO-1 9-436R Hardrock Mining Financial Assurances Page 1

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