CURRENT PROJECTS: * * ALASKA MINERAL PROJECTS GREENS CREEK: SE ALASKA/ADMIRALTY ISLAND - $115 MILLION CAPITAL INVESTMENT 10 YEAR LIFE @ CURRENT KNOWN RESERVES RED DOG: NW ALASKA/KOTZEBUE JV-NANA REGIONAL CORP/COMINCO - OPEN PIT MINE, ZINC/LEAD - 350-400 DIRECT JOBS - $350 MILLION CAPITAL INVESTMENT 50 YEAR LIFE @ CURRENT KNOWN RESERVES UNKNOWN LIFE EXPECTANCY @ CURRENT KNOWN 1987 PRODUCTION @ 36,000 OUNCES. ANTICIPATE 營 55 YEAR LIFE EXPENCTANCY @ CURRENT KNOWN UNKNOWN WHEN WILL BEGIN PRODUCING, SUBJECT TO RED MOUNTAIN: SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA/KENAI PENNINSULA, SELDOVIA - COOK INLET REGIONAL CORP OPEN PIT MINE, CHROMIUM 200 DIRECT JOBS $30-40 MILLION ESTIMATED CAPITAL INVESTMENT 25 YEAR LIFE EXPECTANCY @ CURRENT KNOWN RESERVES (5.14 MILLION METRIC TONS - UNKNOWN WHEN WILL BEGIN PRODUCING AJ GOLD MINE: SE ALASKA/DOWNTOWN JUNEAU ECHO BAY MINES CO. RE-OPENING LODE GOLD MINE 200-225 DIRECT JOBS - $150-175 MILLION CAPITAL INVESTMENT 12-20 YEARS LIFE EXPECTANCY @ CURRENT KNOWN ESTIMATE ANNUAL PRODUCTION 7 MILLION TONS KENSINGTON GOLD MINE: SE ALASKA/JUNEAU ECHO BAY MINES CO. RE-OPENING LODE GOLD MINE 100-125 DIRECT JOBS - $80-100 MILLION CAPITAL INVESTMENT 15-20 YEAR LIFE EXPECTANCY @ CURRENT KNOWN ESTIMATED 1 MILLION TONS ORE/135,000 OZ GOLD. * OTHER UNDEVELOPED MINERAL POTENTIAL IN ALASKA ASBESTOS: 55 MILLION TON PROVEN RESERVES NEAR * 5 MILLION TON PROVEN RESERVE IN LOST 1.1 BILLION POUNDS PROVEN RESERVES IN ANTIMONY: 11 MILLION POUNDS PROVEN RESERVES NEAR FAIRBANKS, KANTISHNA, NOME, TOK AND RED DEVIL AREAS. 65 MILLION POUNDS IN KUSKOKWIM, BORNITE, RAINBOW MOUNTAIN, MACCLAREN AND BRADY GLACIER AREAS * 600,000 OUNCES IN KUSKOKWIM, RAINBOW MOUNTAIN, HALIBUT BAY, AND PLUS DEPOSITS OF COPPER, TANTALUM, COLUMBIUM, URANIUM, TUNGSTEN, ZIRCONIUM, RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS, MERCURY, ETC. Senator BINGAMAN. Thank you very much. Our first witness is the Honorable Larry Craig, Congressman from Idaho, who is the ranking member of the Mining Subcommittee of the Interior Committee in the House of Representatives. We are very pleased to have you here and look forward to your testimony. Go right ahead. STATEMENT OF HON. LARRY E. CRAIG, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM IDAHO Mr. CRAIG. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Senator Bumpers, Senator Murkowski, my senior Senator McClure. I appreciate an opportunity to come before your committee today to discuss the legislation and the concept around the 1872 Mining Law and what it currently does for primarily those public land states west of the Mississippi. I would also like for the record to clarify what I think was probably a slip in information. When Senator Bumpers referred to 160,000 acres of land patented last year, I believe that was 16,000 as by the current record of the BLM. Also something else that I think is very important to understand when we talk about the magnitude of land patented, a reference to a single state or the land surface of the single state as being the magnitude. I would only suggest that in the concept of western space, a state the size of Connecticut is the size of the largest county in my congressional district. We in the west tend not to look at those sizes as relatively significant in the whole of the public land mass of the western United States. Certainly Senator Murkowski and the masses of spread of public land that he refers to in his state I think makes reference to the fact that Connecticut might not be found or might at least be mistaken for a lake or some other type of land mass in the State of Alaska. What is currently going on in the western states in the significance of the renaissance of mining is extremely valuable for all of us, I think, to understand, Mr. Chairman. I say so, and I will move away from my full text for a matter of time and would ask that it be submitted to the record. What I think is important in a state like Idaho that is a mining state historically and currently today is to look beyond that to what is going on in my neighboring State of Nevada which is in its sense a renaissance. For any member of the United States Congress to have that kind of economic activity going on in their state today, they would proclaim it without question as being a phenomenal success story. Let me tell you about it. I think it is valuable for the record. The U.S. Bureau of Mines estimates that the value of Nevada mineral production amounted to $940 million in 1986. The Nevada Department of Minerals estimated that mineral exploration expenditures in the state amounted to $76 million during 1986 with more than $296 million spent on purchases by mining operators. During that same year, the mineral industry paid $21 million in direct State and local taxes, with an additional $4 million paid by employees in State taxes and property taxes. Nevada has no State income tax. Now remember, this is an industry that does not pay royalty. Direct salaries paid to mining employees approximated $195 million, and the mining industry contributed to an increase in statewide employment by nearly 17,000 jobs. In a state like Nevada or Idaho or Alaska or even New Mexico, that is a phenomenal base of employment; new jobs in that period of time. Many of the citizens of my state have gone south to Nevada to find work in the growing mining industry there either in a direct or indirect way, Mr. Chairman. So what was once believed to be a dying industry in the west now because of new technology is a renaissance industry employing thousands and continuing to provide that kind of employment opportunity in the foreseeable future. It is important for us to understand that. This economic success story has been played out time and time again in the west as mining has changed with the economies of this Nation and certainly with the technologies that are available. Public policy framework that has allowed this economic good news to come about is the Mining Law. We ought not question that. The 1872 Mining Law, as I think was properly described by my senior Senator, is as alive and vital and new and dynamic today as the day that it was created. Many people try to portray this law as antiquated and desperately in need of change. It is being characterized as a land giveaway that gives nothing back to the Nation or as a law that promotes environmentally unsound practices. This simply is not the case. In my opinion, there is no record to bear up those arguments. The economic growth that I just described has aided in making this country economically strong and has contributed to one of the lowest rates of unemployment in several decades. As to the simplicity of developing claims or patenting land, I can only say that the rhetoric that is being used is completely inconsistent with the reality. Mr. Chairman, what I would like to do at the close of my statement is to show you a diagram that I think is not only visual in its value but is symbolic in what actually happens from the time the miner or the prospector's pick touches the outcropping and a determination might be made by that individual that there may be a mineral of value and, therefore, a reason to stake a claim and move through the process. I would like to show you that in a diagrammed flow chart way that I think is extremely valuable. Mr. Chairman, the Mining Law is being portrayed as an ancient law that is not functioning. I believe nothing could be further from the truth. I think what is true, though, Mr. Chairman, is that there are some interest groups in this country that do not have control over mining and access to public lands under the Mining Law that they would like to have. Now they have control over the forest products industry. They have control over access to utilization of all other resources on public lands in determining whether they may or may not be developed for a variety of reasons. But once there is valid discovery with mining or with minerals, then a process must be followed but |