House Bill to Give Mining Companies More of Our Lands
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on H.R. 1366, the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act (MRCA), legislation that would significantly alter how mining operations are authorized on public lands. The bill aims to reverse the Rosemont decision, and give mining companies even more free handouts of our public lands.
The Rosemont Decision
In the Rosemont decision, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that a mining company could not dispose of waste on public lands where it had not proven a valid mining claim. Under the General Mining Act of 1872, mining claims on public lands are considered valid only if they contain valuable mineral deposits. The court reaffirmed that mining rights are tied to the specific boundaries of a valid claim, and that activities occurring outside those boundaries require separate legal authorization.
The court also explained that mill sites are one of the appropriate avenues for conducting mining-related activities, such as waste disposal, outside the boundaries of a valid claim. Mill sites are limited to five-acre parcels of non-mineral public land and are intended to support mining operations without allowing companies to occupy excessive areas of public land.
Impacts of the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act
Mining proponents argued that the Court’s decision limits their ability to use public lands for ancillary uses. The MRCA responds by dramatically expanding the mill site provision by allowing mining companies to claim an unlimited number of adjacent mill sites on public land, regardless of whether the land is mineral or non-mineral in character. This change would grant long-term unlimited access to public land.
The bill goes even further by extending mining rights beyond claim boundaries altogether. Under the current law, lands with valid mining claims already receive an automatic priority use for mining because agencies have long held that the Mining Law of 1872 limits their ability to deny a mine once a valid claim is established. The MRCA would extend that priority privilege to public lands without a mining claim for mining-related purposes by codifying a broad regulatory definition of “mining operations” into federal law. That definition includes not only mineral extraction, but also related infrastructure such as roads, pipelines, power lines, and access routes, even when located off a mining claim. While agencies currently retain some discretion to require permits or deny activities that are not located on valid claims to balance public land uses, the MRCA would convert those activities into statutory mining rights, giving them the same automatic priority as mining operations occurring within the claim boundary. This change dramatically reduces the limited amount of discretion that agencies have and further elevates mining above other beneficial uses across more of our public land.
This is not the first time the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act has been introduced. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) first proposed the legislation in 2023, with Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) as a co-sponsor, while Representative Amodei (R-NV) introduced a companion bill that passed through the House. But, many legislators were opposed to the bill as they believed it gave excessive power to the mining industry (which it does). The bill was introduced to the Senate again this year, but has remained off the Senate floor since clearing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in April.
The MRCA moves mining policy in the wrong direction. For a negligible fee, any mining operator can have unrestricted access to our public lands and block other beneficial uses. We thought the bar for regulating mining was already low, but H.R. 1366 hands the mining industry a shovel to bury it deeper.
