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Show February 4. 1976 Page Eleven of Federal Land Regulation A Consequence By David Weston mPac t!ie crisis, the mining industry and the U.S. Bureau of Mines have repeatedly warned that the United States is facing a mineral crisis that could cause a staggering upheaval of the domestic economy. The U.S. Geological Survey recently reported that the United States is 90 percent dependent on imports of nine primary minerals (manganese, chromium, strontium, etc.): 75 to 90 percent dependent on imports for eight minerals (aluminum, tin, platinum) 70 percent dependent for eight minerals (zinc, gold, silver, tungsten, nickel, potassium, etc.) and 50 percent dependent on imports for sixteen minerals (copper, iron, lead, magnesium, etc.). Forecasts for the year 2,000 point to a bleaker dependency picture for most major mineral commodities. Minerals, the strength of our industrial posture, the resource of our defense, is, like oil,' subject to the whims of foreign sources. Mineral self sufficiency, like oil self sufficiency, requires the discovery of economically mineable mineral deposits. Yet, through cost increases created by government regulatory intervention, more located mineral reserves are being removed fromthisnations storehouse than are being discovered. There is a strange and popular misconception among federal land use planners that a steady supply of minerals from the crust of the earth is simply a matter of allocating otherwise unuseable land. This nation ignores the fundamental factor governing mineral supply-geolo- gic availability. Gold is where you find it. A United States Forest Service geologist reported to me his attendance at a Washington Federal Agency Land Use Planning Meeeting. There, a bureaucratic land use planner from Hawaii (formerly responsible for land use planning in Hawaii) presented an elaborate geographical fixed use division of the land mass of the United States. Every conceiveable use of the land was provided for except mineral exploration and recovery. When asked by the geologist where industry would find the resources to build automobiles, washing machines, and the tools of industry necessary for the urban and industrial centers, the steel plows for farming, the fire trucks to protect the forest reserves, and the mountain climbers tools to permit some recreational use of the wilderness area, the stunned bureaucrat retorted, There is no mining in Hawaii. Is it really necessary? As a result of ill conceived land use planning and environmental controls, there is a disorganized and confused federal minerals policy. Jack Carlson, Assistant Interior Secretary in Energy and Minerals, warns, The practice of withdrawing federal lands from mineral exploration and mining has accelerated to the point that by 1980, all public lands could be closed, which would include our best mineral resource , areas. but the rate of withdrawal has accelerated due to uncordinated federal land use planning, where today a staggering 67 percent of all federal lands have been closed to mining and exploration. Federal mineral policy in the past was coordinated through the Bureau of Mines. This useful agency has been seriously weakened in its role by the federal planners from various agencies who have had no central coordination. These same planners who created the problem by ignoring the Bureau of Mines, nouproposemore super planning in the form of Senate Bills S1410 and S1415. These bills duplicate work and programs already accomplished by the US Bureau of Mines. They will permit each land use agency to further harrass the minerals industry through duplicate reporting and endless red tape. Other ill informed activities sponsored by land planners, threatening to our nations mineral development are found in recent punitive tax action, ill conceived environmental controls (Clean Air Act) and ill conceived provisions in the mining laws. One such Bill, HR8435, introduced by Patsy Mink on Mines and Mining) would House hault mineral exploration and development on all public Jands for five years. Patsy Minks Bill would eliminate the mineral claims system and would turn all federal lands containing minerals into a federal leasing program where the federal government would own and control the land through exploration, development, and resource recovery.9 Other proposed, legislation would require mine operators to seek federal approval for operating and approval for reclamation plans before starting any activity. In addition, there is proposed legislation to levy royalty on all mineral production from federal lands and legislation to insure that the government considers alternative uses for the land as well as likely environmental damage before granting an operating permit. The decisions regarding land use planning need to be returned to the people most closely affected. What is required is a return to multiple uses of public lands, which recognize the necessity for mineral exploration and development. This can best be accomplished by a wholesale return of public lands to the states where the environment and economic factors governing the use of the land are most closely understood and can be most logically controlled by the people most directly involved. In addition, federal minerals policy needs to be restored through the agency best equipped and already trained to coordinate the needs of the nation for mineral resource development and the needs of the developers, the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Let us hope that bureacratic ignorance in the area of mineral resource development does not follow the same path in our legislative halls as we have seen in the course of natural gas legislation with its present dire results. Sub-Committ- ee Until 1968, 17 percent of federal lands had been withdrawn. once me -- me esMioPs. I HEM)moREAL HAP AUTHOR- GfEM)-Uf- 5. YOU? ITY t MY W inAsp, KIPS BUT WHY? d&ms ALMS menu mzTH6Y jock I KIPS. 1 uevsR LISTENED tJ I 6R0WWPS DERf ' WT imR RIGHT. KIPS. . UWIP Hwe HAW Tm. - I ri I I z- - WMvio me them. ws um-- m imet? AS if vv PIput mt-eme- p v em. w mjLP IR suatmri mice. Mrs fcjo R&6 O) TO WORSHIP mi. me imp v&vee&p wh! ezwse-mweG- aup E seLFmmxs. MX ASPECT you, VHP-- well seme IT UTER. FIRST, IUSH MY WORKT. |