Laws & Regulations

U.S. gold mining operations must comply with a broad range of local, state and federal laws and regulations that govern how mines are operated and how mined land is reclaimed for other beneficial uses. The General Mining Law (the 1872 Mining Law), which regulates access to federal lands, is specific to metals mining. Requirements affecting environmental performance and public comment, for example, apply to mining as well as the rest of American industry.

Most metals mining in the United States occurs in 12 western states, where much of the land is owned by the federal government. This land-covering approximately 700 million acres-is the responsibility of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Roughly half of that land is either totally withdrawn or entry, leasing or sale is restricted. Of the remaining land, the BLM or the U.S. Forest Service oversees a variety of federal land uses, including ranching, mining, forestry and railroad rights of way, for example.

Recently, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) evaluated whether metals mining and mined land reclamation should be subject to a uniform set of laws that covered only mining, or if the current system of state and federal laws and regulations was more protective of the environment. The NAS found that because of varying topography and climate conditions, soils composition, processing technology and metals chemistry, it was not possible to develop a uniform set of standards and recommended the current approach as the preferred alternative.

For a more comprehensive overview of the laws and regulations governing gold mining in the United States: U.S. Laws and Regulations Governing Gold Mining on Private and Federal Lands


For the position of the U.S. mining industry on a national minerals policy and mining law reform http://www.nma.org/policy/legislative/mining_law_reform.asp.