Nevada congressman seeks to cut red tape in mining permit process

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 | 8:59 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - One of mining's staunchest congressional allies is trying to win relief for what he calls an over-regulated industry with a plan to speed up federal action on backlogged mining claims and permits.

At the urging of the Nevada mining industry, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., is pressing House leaders for an extra $2.3 million for the Bureau of Land Management's 2005 budget.

Gibbons wants most of the money to go toward 11 new BLM positions to speed the review of mining claims and of permits for new mines and exploration in Nevada, the nation's top gold-producing state.

"Nevada is home to over half of all of this nation's mining claims, yet BLM officials in our state have inadequate funding and not enough staff to process these claims," Gibbons said.

The BLM has 120,000 mining claims pending in the state, nearly 20,000 of which were filed last year, BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson said.

Environmentalists support a funding increase for the BLM, but not for the same purpose.

"We feel it would be wonderful for the BLM to have more money for management and enforcement - not just for the sake of mining companies' bottom line, but for the sake of the public," said Susan Czopek of the Reno-based Great Basin Mine Watch group.

"The BLM needs to protect all its millions of acres for all of us, not just for mining companies," she said.

Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association in Reno, said he thinks speeding the permit process is long overdue. Mining companies have complained about delays of a decade or more.

"We're in a situation now with gold mining, the industry is growing, there's a lot more exploration activity, we're looking at mines to do expansions and they can't get started until the BLM goes through the permitting process," Fields said.

Connie Holmes, an economist for the National Mining Association in Washington, D.C. , said permit delays threaten to drive mining companies overseas.

"We need policies that turn the U.S. from the least attractive location for investment to the most attractive location," she said at a congressional hearing late last month.

Czopek said she doubts companies will leave the United States with gold prices hovering above $400 per ounce.

Gibbons was honored late last year by the Northwest Mining Association for his service to the minerals industry, including helping to repeal some Clinton-era regulations.

Afterward, he unveiled a proposal to sell public land in Nevada to two mining companies: Placer Dome U.S. Inc. and Graymont Western U.S. Inc.

The proposal would allow the companies to bypass what Gibbons views as excessive red tape: the permitting process required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

Gibbons, a former mining geologist and founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Mining Caucus, complained that complying with the act takes several years and is subject to time-consuming lawsuits.

Environmentalists called his proposal an end run on the nation's environmental laws for the benefit of one special interest.

Gibbons said his efforts are designed to boost the economy of rural Nevada, where mining is the No. 1 industry and employs about 10,000 people directly and accounts for countless other jobs.

Nevada's second-largest industry is mining, and the state is the world's third-biggest producer of gold behind South Africa and Australia.