Addressing Delays in Abandoned Hardrock Mine Cleanup

Scale of the Abandoned Mine Problem

• 📌 The U.S. has at least 140,000 abandoned Hard Rock Mine features on federal land, with the true number potentially reaching half a million.
• ⚠️ This leads to significant environmental impairment, with approximately 40% of Headwater streams being impaired due to acidic and orange-colored water.
• 💧 Impaired streams negatively impact irrigation and municipal water supplies.

Primary Impediments to Cleanup

• 💰 The single largest challenge is the lack of a dedicated funding source for cleanup efforts.
• 🤝 Organizations like Tu have managed cleanups by securing federal agencies to hold liability, but this is only feasible on public land.
• 💸 Funding is currently cobbled together through membership dollars, industry support, foundations, and private citizens, unlike dedicated sources for coal, oil, or gas.

Mining Company Contributions and Royalties

• ⚖️ The mining industry supports a reasonable net royalty as a contribution towards cleanup efforts.
• 📊 A net royalty is preferred because it accounts for the complexity and variation of different ore bodies.
• 🌐 The industry also emphasizes considering the total government take, including state and local taxes, to ensure competitiveness with international operations.

Towards a Global Solution

• 🔑 Key issues to address include creating regulatory and permitting certainty to attract capital.
• 💰 A reasonable revenue source is needed to fund the cleanup of existing mine lands.
• 🗣️ Granting discretion to public land management agencies can help avoid intractable arguments and litigation.
• 🗺️ A potential global solution could involve greater upfront certainty through processes like the BLM's land resource planning, identifying protected areas, and establishing a predictable cleanup process without wholesale revision of mining law.