Hitting pay dirt - dirt cheap. (review of the General Mining Law) (The Practical Activist)

Imagine moving over 900 million tons of rock to create a pit 8000 feet long and 1800 feet deep - big enough to hold six Statues of Liberty, one on top of the other. This is exactly what a mining company is doing in Nevada, on public lands that are wide open to abusive mining practices because of the antiquated General Mining Law of 1872.

For years, environmentalists have been working to change this statute, which regulates - barely - hardrock mining on public lands. Reflecting an outdated view of the West as a limitless frontier waiting to be conquered, the Mining Law sells mineral rights at nineteenth-century prices - as little as $2.50 an acre. Miners then extract …