It’s just one of multiple sites where companies are allowed to mine on public land—without paying a dime of royalties to the U.S. Treasury.
When Congress opened U.S. public lands for mining in 1872, the nation was less than a century old. Miners used picks, shovels, and pressurized water hoses to pry loose valuable minerals like gold and silver.
Today, mining is a high-technology industry, but it’s still governed by the Mining Law of 1872. As was true 150 years ago, companies can mine valuable mineral deposits from federal lands without paying any royalties to the U.S. Treasury.
Even when lands that formerly were available for mining receive new protected status as national parks or monuments, the 1872 mining law protects existing mining claims on those lands. That’s why a company called Energy Fuels Inc. just started mining uranium in January 2024 at a site in Arizona 10 miles from the Grand Canyon and inside a new national monument.
Minerals like lithium, uranium, and copper are essential for shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and for many other uses in our increasingly technological society. The Biden administration wants to produce these materials domestically, rather than relying on foreign sources—especially from countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where child labor abuses in the mining industry persist.
For the rest of this article: https://www.fastcompany.com/91031266/how-an-1872-law-is-being-exploited-to-mine-uranium-near-the-grand-canyon