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Dozens of CA events this weekend honor Latino Conservation Week; Kamala Harris joins Oprah Winfrey in emotional campaign event; Report finds poor working conditions in Texas clean energy industry; AI puts on a lab coat, heads to technical schools.

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OR Group Stakes a Claim for Mining Law Reform

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Wednesday, August 11, 2010   

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - An unlikely group of prospectors has filed a mining claim in southwest Oregon, in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. Oregon Wild is a conservation group that wants to show just how easy it is under the current federal mining law to claim public land for private use. They chose a site on the Illinois River, which is designated as Wild and Scenic.

The group believes it's too easy to mine with little environmental oversight, and without having to pay royalties to the federal government. Sean Stevens, who filed the claim, says the only fees are paid to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and county, and total less than $200.

"To file a federal mining claim is actually pretty darn simple. You just need to find on the map a place that isn't claimed already and that's open to mineral entry - and then you walk out there and drive a stake into the ground with a sign on it that says the name of the claim, who claimed it and where their address is. And that's it."

Stevens says there was a moratorium on mining claims in the Siskiyou, which is a proposed wilderness area, but it was canceled by the previous administration and there are more than 1,100 claims in the area.

The federal mining law was written in 1872. Stevens points out that bulldozers and suction dredges have replaced pickaxes and mules, and says the law hasn't kept pace with the changes.

"We need an overhaul of the whole concept behind our federal mining law, so that we're not only protecting wild places, but also protecting taxpayers who end up footing the bill for the cleanup for all of these abandoned mines."

There are more than 5,800 abandoned mine sites in Oregon, according to Forest Service and BLM estimates.

In Congress, both the House and Senate introduced bills last year to update the mining law, but then got sidetracked with other issues. Some believe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is under pressure from the mining industry to delay reform. Nevada is home to more than 80 percent of the nation's gold mines.



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