Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining: The Problem

There are not only wild lands and big game along Route 1872, but wild nights and gaming too. That’s because claimholders who bought public land under the 1872 Mining Law don’t have to mine the property. They can use it—and have—to build hotels, condominiums and casinos.

That’s what happened in Nevada’s Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where a parcel of land acquired under the 1872 Mining Law’s “patenting” provisions for less than $200 was turned into a hotel and casino. For years, the government has been trying—unsuccessfully—to buy back property that lies within the habitat of the protected bighorn sheep and the desert tortoise. In 2001, the property owner had increased the asking price to $20 million.

Lake Mead

Overall, approximately 3.2 million acres of public land—an area the size of Connecticut—have been sold under the mining law at what the late Congressman Morris Udall called “fire sale” prices. Perhaps the biggest boondoggle occurred in Nevada in 1994, when Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold “patented” land with gold worth an estimated $10 billion for less than $10,000. Since then, Congress has used its appropriations process to impose yearly bans on the mandatory sales of federal lands under the mining law. The patenting provision remains in the law, however.

Side Trips:

H. Brean, “BLM Wants Casino to Cash Out,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 16, 2004.

Robert McClure and Andrew Schneider, “A good deal for miners often isn't for Uncle Sam,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 13, 2001.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area — Nevada

Gaming the System

Next, visit Death Valley