Fewer mine claims mean less abandoned mine funds

Tuesday, May 23, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

"We're looking at other options, like voluntary contributions from the industry," division Administrator Alan Coyner told the Elko Daily Free Press.

The division's funding for the abandoned mines program comes from mining claim fees and mining land-disturbance fees, with the division receiving $1 from each county for every mining claim filed and $20 from mining operators for each acre of public land they disturb.

The $1 comes out of the $100 fee per claim.

That's where the crunch comes because there were only 112,000 mining claims filed last year, compared with 440,000 in 1993, meaning less money and less work on abandoned mines by the mining and exploration companies.

The division has identified 7,677 abandoned mine openings in the state and secured 5,482 of them.

Coyner said the industry is willing to contribute more money and staff toward the division's abandoned mines program, though.

According to current federal law, if a mining company disturbs an area and reclaims, it also has to reclaim old mining workings and previous environmental damage.

In years past, operators just walked away from mines that had become nonproductive.

The division's priority is to close abandoned mine openings that pose the greatest safety threat and work its way down to the less threatening projects, Coyner said.

Because of those safety concerns, more of the abandoned mines are being filled in southern Nevada near high population areas than in northern Nevada.

"This is one of the few programs in the state where the rurals pay for (projects) in the southern part of the state," he said.

The most funding came from Lander County, 22 percent of the total revenues for fiscal year 1999 of $185,756, while the least - zero - came from Carson City.

Minerals division statistics show that the most sites have been discovered in Clark County at 1,461, and 789 of those have been secured.

The most sites have been secured in Esmeralda County - 825 out of 985 discovered.

In Lander County, there have been 268 sites found, and 199 of them secured.