U.S. Treasure Hunt

The most antiquated vestige of the Old West is not the six-shooter or the buckboard, but a piece of yellowed parchment titled the General Mining Law of 1872. Portions of the law still in effect allow latter-day sourdoughs to buy mining claims in the West from the federal government for as little as $2.50 an acre. Little of the land is actually used for mining, however, according to an investigation by Congress’ General Accounting Office. The gold in those hills tends to be the hills themselves--or the flats, for that matter--often located near ski areas and other resorts. What used to be the Treasure of Sierra Madre and other romantic digs is now the Treasure of the High Condo.

In a random sample of 285 applications by so-called miners to buy unpatened mining claims, the GAO found that the Department of the Interior was preparing to sell a dozen parcels valued at up to $47 million for just $16,000. In a recent appearance before a congressional committee, Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. allowed that “maybe it is time to revisit” the 1872 law. You bet it is.

The nation’s latest general land law, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, requires either that the government retain federal lands or sell them at fair market value. With coal, shale or oil, the government leases the land to the exploiters--usually after seeking competitive bids, and then takes a hefty share in royalties. The land itself remains in federal ownership. The 1872 mining law remains the most outlandish exception to this modern federal policy. It allows persons who have demonstrated commercially valuable discovery of precious metals such as gold or silver, and who have invested up to $100 annually in developing the claim, to obtain title to the land. The price remains $5 an acre for lode claims and $2.50 an acre for placer claims, no matter where they are.

Also, hobby prospectors commonly use their unpatented claims as weekend retreats, often without ever finding any valuable metal. The Bureau of Land Management has tried to root out this sort of squatter. And its booklet on how to stake a mining claim warns about speculators who--for a fee--file claims in behalf of others, pretend to do the annual development work and prove-up the claim for purchase when the real goal is pure land speculation. The booklet notes: “These promoters are not a part of the mining industry and should not be confused with the legitimate miners or prospectors who are diligently prospecting for minerals . . ..” The bureau does not suggest what to do about them, however.

The General Accounting Office proposed that the claim sales be stopped and that the government only lease the land to the miner. That is the obvious course to follow, although mining associations wish to perpetuate the myth that anyone can wander into the desert and find his own bonanza in some desert hill. The determined sourdough still could find the bonanza. He just would not get ownership to the land.