Mining Reform "Stalled"; Solons Unhappy

According to an article in yesterday's Las Vegas Review-Journal, a collectivist-environmentalist claque of ten anti-mining U. S. Senators (which includes Washington's own Maria Cantwell) has sent a missive to the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in an apparent effort to stimulate creation of a Senate version of mining reform legislation similar to the bill (H.R. 2262) passed by the House of Representatives last November. According to the newspaper, the House bill is quite "dead" in the Senate, if not quite buried, and the afore-mentioned solons are most unhappy that their efforts at "mining reform" seem "stalled."

There is some indication in the story that saner heads may prevail in the drafting of a Senate bill.

You can read the article for yourself by clicking on the link above.

We shall see in due course how this all pans out.

Forest Service Solicits Comments on Proposed Rules for Locatable Minerals Operations

The U.S. Forest Service is soliciting public comments on proposed revisions to the rules regulating locatable minerals operations on National Forest Lands.

According to the Forest Service's notice published in the Federal Register for 25 March 2008, "The revised rule would apply to prospecting, exploration, development, mining and processing operations, and reclamation under the Mining Law of May 10, 1872, as amended."

Comments may be submitted until 27 May 2008.

For full details on the proposed revisions and on how to submit comments, see the entry in the Federal Register here.