Mine Plan Gets Nod In Senate Craig Says Amendment’s Passage Signals Reform May Happen

The Senate passed major provisions of Sen. Larry Craig’s mining reform plan Tuesday.

While the Senate debated the appropriations or spending bill for the Interior Department, the Idaho Republican offered an amendment to the bill that included the following:

An end of a moratorium on patenting, the process by which mining companies claim land for development.

This would allow current patents being held up in a moratorium passed in 1993 to be processed.

Companies would have to pay fair market value on the surface land of future mining claims on public land.

When mining ends on public lands, the land reverts to either state or federal control.

The amendment passed 53-46, a signal, Craig said, that the Senate wants to tackle mining reform as a whole.

Craig’s industry-backed mining reform bill still awaits action in a Senate committee.

Tuesday’s vote encouraged Craig to believe his bill will emerge from committee soon after Congress’ August recess.

The bill Craig amended now heads for a conference committee with the House appropriations bill, and Craig said he was confident his amendment would make it through both houses.

“I think this really breaks up some of the gridlock that we have been in over this issue,” Craig said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C., late Tuesday.

Momentum for mining reform on the part of Congress has slowed, worrying industry leaders that reform efforts would, once again, fall victim to partisan bickering.

A bill similar to Craig’s awaits approval in the House, where it will be contested by a more stringent Democratic bill.

Craig’s bill would charge companies a 3 percent net royalty on metals mined on public lands, allowing companies to subtract the cost of mining them.

Small miners would not be subject to the royalty.

The House Democratic bill would charge an 8 percent gross royalty.

A conference committee will take up the two Interior Department appropriations bills in early September, Craig said.

, DataTimes