Another Wipe out an Industry Bill - End ALL Mining In U.S. - Unbelievable! Has Support in CONgress

When I think I have heard it all, a bill has been introduced that has support that would wipe out one of our few remaining industries - Mining!

I can not grasp what our govt. is thinking, but bringing these bills up, when they are done, we won't have any industry left. The amount of jobs lost would be tremedous if this bill sees the light of day and gets passed!

link to article: www.icmj.com...

Nick Rahall, chairman of the House Resources Committee, reintroduced mining reform legislation in the House of Representatives on January 27, 2009. The Congressman has obviously been away from real work for far too long. H.R. 699, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009, should be labeled H.R. 666 because it appears to have been written by the Devil himself. If it passes as written, it will completely destroy an entire industry.

The number for the bill is odd.

Below are just a FEW of the provisions of the bill, there are many more - complete - in link.

Casual use would be redefined to allow only those activities that do not cause “any disturbance of public lands and resources.” The collection of samples, use of gold pans and non-motorized sluices would be the only activities allowed without a Notice or Plan. Taking a vehicle off-road would also require a Notice or Plan. Any extraction of minerals for sale or use would require a Notice or Plan.
H.R. 699 would be retroactive. Existing mining that is not already operating under a Notice of Plan would require proof of a valuable discovery to retain a mining claim, and those operating under a Notice or Plan would have ten years to bring their operation under compliance with the new regulations.

The federal government would be entitled to an 8 percent gross royalty for all locatable minerals for any new mining operation. Even if the miner is unable to make a reasonable profit at current commodity prices, he would have to give 8 percent to the federal government. Existing operations at the time the bill is passed would be subject to a 4 percent gross royalty, and any federal lands added to the operation after enactment of the bill would be subject to the 8 percent royalty.

The bill would give the Secretary the authority to deny any operation that may cause undue degradation.

The bill would provide environmental lawyers an unending source of income. Any citizen would be allowed to file a civil lawsuit against the miner or the federal government to force compliance with the mining laws after giving sixty days written notice. The court would be allowed to award the costs of litigation, including attorney and witness fees, as the court deems appropriate.

Any miner who fails to comply with any portion of a permit would be subjected to a fine of $25,000 per day.

Any person who engages in mineral activities without the required permit, if convicted, would be punished by a fine of not less than $5,000 per day or by imprisonment for up to 3 years or both.

Designated employees of the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture would be given full law enforcement powers over permitted miners, including the power to subpoena miners to force attendance, testimony, and disclosure of all paperwork, and warrantless searches of vehicles and buildings expected to contain locatable minerals or products derived from them would be allowed.

The Secretary would be forced to prevent mineral activities that could have an adverse impact on the resources and values of National Conservation System Units.

This is mind blowing that CONgress would even consider something like this. BUT the problem is................. it already has MANY sponsors:

The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. George Miller (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Howard Berman (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Jim Costa (D-CA), Donna Christensen (D-VI), Pete Stark (D-CA), Dale Kildee (D-MI), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Ron Kind (D-WI), Lois Capps (D-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Mike Honda (D-CA), John Salazar (D-CO), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), and Gerry Connolly (D-VA).

So, if you want to voice your opinion and let them know what you think............ here you go........

Contact information for each of the bill sponsors:


Nick Rahall (D-WV) phone 202 225-3452
George Miller (D-CA) phone 202 225-2095
Henry Waxman (D-CA) phone 202 225-3976
Ed Markey (D-MA) phone 202 225-2836
Howard Berman (D-CA) phone 202 225-4695
Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) phone 202 225-2435
Rush Holt (D-NJ) phone 202 225-5801
Jim Costa (D-CA) phone 202 225-3341
Donna Christensen (D-VI) phone 202 225-1790
Dale Kildee (D-MI) phone 202 225-3611
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) phone 202 225-6335
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) phone 202 225-4811
Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) phone 202 225-4911
Ron Kind (D-WI) phone 202 225-5506
Lois Capps (D-CA) phone 202 225-3601
Adam Schiff (D-CA) phone 202 225-4176
Mike Honda (D-CA) phone 202 225-2631
John Salazar (D-CO) phone 202 225-4761
Anna Eshoo (D-CA) phone 202 225-8104
Niki Tsongas (D-MA) phone 202 225-3411
Gerry Connolly (D-VA) phone 202 225-1492

Will it ever end??? Everyone of them are democrats! Amazing...... I became a Democrat....... because I thought it was a party of a more fair and just caucus. Instead, it seems to be a destruction party of industry at the moment.

Time for the mining industry and their employees to start marching into Washington to let their voices to be heard.

As long as they are complaining while sitting at home comfortably they government will get away with what they are proposing because that is how it works in this nation.

We reap what we sow.

I am not surprized.
Lately it almost looks like they are deliberately doing things to hurt peoples way of life.
What a bunch of scumbags.

Seems to me that your US Government ,( and I mean US as in the individuals running and ruining your country , and not the United States) just want to make it difficult for people to live without having some sort of paper ( sounds like Nazi Germany and Communist Russia when you had to have papers to travel ) and that they want to creme 8 percent off the top for themselves?.
I don't honestly think that they would leave it at 8% either, more likely " We can give the papers so you can mine but you'll have to give us 50% instead" , meaning no papers , no mining , but they'll probably 'hire' they're own mining labour force and once the papers haven't been issued then move in and mine it ALL for themselves.

Look a little deeper and you will see that the purpose of the bill is to prevent small groups and private citizens from mining gold on a scale larger than a sluice or pan.
It is about who can produce gold.
Gold, as in alternatives for paper currency.

I'm not sure why this thread caught my attention...but I noticed this clause buried in the text of the original quote:

Originally posted by questioningall
H.R. 699 would be retroactive. Existing mining that is not already operating under a Notice of Plan would require proof of a valuable discovery to retain a mining claim

It made me wonder whether there is an ulterior motive to snatch the resource-rights from a current mining operation under guise of this bill...perhaps whoever stands to benefit has access to sensitive geological information that they can exploit using this bill?

..just a thought

its funny that people can go on and on about things , yet they really do not understand what they are talking about.

Originally posted by accuroman
I am not surprized.
Lately it almost looks like they are deliberately doing things to hurt peoples way of life.
What a bunch of scumbags.

That's what I have been saying all along.

citizen smith

I kind of saw today a bit of an interview on CNBC about the mining industry and Coal, now that Obama is prioritizing alternative energy resources this will bring a surge for the mining industry.

So now that I am putting one and one together the bill proposed in congress will not make much sense.

Also in the chart presented shows that America had the biggest coal resources in the world? followed by Russia and China.

Still we do not use our resourced to the max.

I wonder.

Wake up people, Democrats and Republicans are the same. Our country is out of control and you can blame the uninformed masses for voting in these diots. Maybe we will start seeing riots when unemployment hits double digits. The question of the day is, how do we get control back?

At first glance it seems reasonable to me. Certain methods of mining are terribly destructive and what about the mining that goes on on public lands? I think the US citizens are entitled to a cut of the profits if only because it is usually us that has to pay for the clean up.

Nothing wrong with saving some of our treasure for future generations.

Our generation seems to want everything right now. We are spoiled brats.

I agree with you stikkinikki in a way.

But the way our nation is going down the hill economically very soon thanks to protectionism of our so call "resources" we will be a nation of bankrupted people, unemployed and hungry but with plenty of Federal land protected from exploitation.

I know sounds silly but is the truth.

We the People do need to take back that which is ours by birthright, and put an end to this control factor that is the democrats/republicans=nwo. What will happen the the thousands of people who depend on mining for a living, a way of life? I think the about posters are correct, this is all about super control of the resources, so that gold can become currency once more. What we really need is an interest free monetary system, administered by the united States Treasury Department. The banks could still issue fiat dollars based on the gold reserves, as long as demand didn't cause runs on the bank.

reply to post by stikkinikki


The mining companies do, in fact, pay royalties... to the state in which the activity takes place. This is a money grab by the feds to get their cut.

The industry also EMPLOYS people who pay federal taxes, along with all the other taxes everyone else is supposed to pay.
The state coffers have dwindled since the down-turn in mining activities beginning in the 70's. The companies have been cleaning up their act, giving in to the regulations proposed by the anti-mining lobbies.
They give, they have given, now the government (fed) wants to take.

One sponsor of the bill, from AZ, is in the fight to keep a mining company from starting up outside of Tucson, out of my district, so I can do little but talk to his constituents to get him out of there. Seems like his district is loaded with people dependent on their jobs at the mines.

Should the foreign owners of the producing mines in the US decide to suspend all operations upon passage of the POS, we are in for rough times.

If it can't be GROWN it's gotta be MINED.

Ban all mining... let the bastards freeze in the dark.

reply to post by citizen smith


I saw the retroactive part too..... where the hell is our govt. coming from with this bill? It does not make any sense at all!

It will only hurt the U.S.! We export coal and other mining items out to China............ it is one of our few items that count toward GDP!

I also can not believe there are so many supporters of it!

Really has to make you think!!!! how could the people we trust COMPLETELY screw up a country?

. Ship all the middle class jobs over seas.
. Make things close to impossible for small business owners.
. Tax breaks and incentives for foreign companies.
. Tax breaks for the filthy rich
. Allow / condone corruption and greed of UNIMAGINABLY proportions.
. Tax / Tax and more TAX for the lower paid 1% of the population.

How many of these perpetrators actually are or will do any kind of time for the destruction they have / are doing? VERY LITTLE IF ANY, and people can't see how blatant this is, is unbelievable to me.

Also in the chart presented shows that America had the biggest coal resources in the world? followed by Russia and China.

reply to post by marg6043


Matter of fact we HAD one of the largest and purest coal resourses in the world in the southwest ready for development until Bill Clinton in an effort to appease his liberal environmental supporters made the area in New Mexico a NATIONAL MONUMENT. The area is now more or less worthless to the nation as it has little recreational value or any other value. The coal deposit would have served our nation for hundreds of years with high grade coal with the lowest environmental cost! Thanks Bill Clinton for your ignorance and short sightedness!

I think this might be one of the matches that spark the fire..Or the last few staws on the proverbial back..

I have miners in my family from north east P.A,and have spent allot of time in west viginia and kentucky..There are hurting now,take what little they have left,and then try to take there guns....You know whats next..Or atleast I do..

It seems stupid but its like they are intentionally taking the economy apart?

Does it not seem like that to most people, you know when your trying to break something but don't want it to look like your breaking it, poke at it, hear a ticking or grinding noise so you run it faster ..... pick at it until it just breaks?