This bill adds rules for locating multiple hardrock mining "mill sites" on public land and creates an "Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund." It defines mill sites, says they can be included in an approved plan of operations, limits a single mill site to 5 acres, and says mill sites do not convey mineral rights or eligibility for patenting. The bill directs that amounts collected from the claim maintenance fee on these mill sites be deposited into the new Fund. The Fund may be spent, without further appropriation, by the Secretary of the Interior to carry out section 40704 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and amounts must be allocated and may be transferred consistent with that section. The bill also makes clerical amendments to the claim fee and location fee language in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993.
If you hold a lode or placer claim and need public land for operations related to that claim, the bill lets you locate and include as many mill sites in your approved plan of operations as are reasonably necessary. Each located mill site may be up to 5 acres. Mill sites do not give you mineral rights and cannot be patented. Mill sites can be on the same tracts where you already have lode or placer claims. Fees collected from these mill sites are directed into a dedicated fund for abandoned hardrock mine purposes described in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
No publicly available information on estimated total costs or savings is provided in the bill text. The bill specifies that amounts collected by the Secretary of the Interior from the claim maintenance fee on mill sites will be deposited into the Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund. Money in that Fund may be spent without further appropriation to carry out section 40704 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and must be allocated or may be transferred as that section allows.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.