NATION IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Halt to Mining Claim Applications Backed

The government will accept no new applications for mining claims on public lands for a year under a breakthrough compromise reached by Senate-House negotiators. Critics of an 1872 federal mining law that lets people extract hard-rock minerals from public lands for little cost have been trying to change the statute for years. They say it allows a virtual giveaway of federal assets, but industry supporters say changing the law would cause bankruptcies and cost thousands of jobs. Under the law, federal mining claims to land with billions of dollars’ worth of minerals can be bought for as little as $2.50 an acre.