Reid, Gibbons set out to change mining laws

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2004 | 9:25 a.m.

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., are preparing to tackle the mammoth job of reforming the nation's Civil War-era mining laws next year.

The two lawmakers are gathering a group of mining industry experts to advise them in the next Congress. The lawmakers may help lead an effort to reform an industry governed by long-outdated laws.

Mining employs nearly 9,000 workers in Nevada, according to the Nevada Mining Association. The state is the third largest gold-mining region in the world behind South Africa and Australia.

Congress has long sought to reform the 1872 Mining Law, but the cumbersome effort of overhauling the complex legislation with a wide array of interested parties peering over their shoulders has never advanced far.

Environmentalists say the law allows mining companies to harm the environment and unfairly make mining claims on federal land without making adequate payment for use of taxpayers' land.

Reid, Gibbons and other pro-mining lawmakers say they want to protect the industry as well as the environment. If Congress intends to tackle mining reform next year, the Nevada lawmakers want to have a group of their own experts in place to recommend new law.

In August Reid and Gibbons announced they were forming a technical panel of mining-law experts to advise them and develop legislation.

Of special interest to the panel would be problems arising from administrative rules, such as a Clinton-era rule that restricted the amount of land a mine could use to store toxic waste without special permits. That rule has been abandoned under President Bush, but such rules threaten to limit exploration and production, the lawmakers said.

The panel has not been completely formed yet and likely will not begin meeting until later this year, Gibbons spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said.

Republican leaders including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay sent letters to Gibbons recently in support of the mining panel.

Having "the ear of key legislators in Washington" will empower the panel, Gibbons said.