|
BLM allows placer miners, prospectors, to use state bonding pool
Patricia Jones Petroleum News contributing writer
Placer miners and prospectors working on federal claims in Alaska can participate in the state’s mine reclamation bonding pool under a cooperative agreement signed Aug. 6 by representatives of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Bureau of Land Management.
Now, placer miners working on BLM-administered lands file an Annual Placer Mining Application with DNR, allowing them access to the state bond pool, said Brent Martellaro, a geologist in DNR’s Division of Mining, Land & Water in Fairbanks.
In addition to the $100 application fee, miners pay $150 per acre into the bond pool, and are refunded $112 per acre if the ground is reclaimed that same year.
A portion of the bond payment is retained for each year the ground is not reclaimed, Martellaro said. More than one scenario Miners can opt not to use the bond pool and pay $750 per acre, one scenario that was considered prior to the DNR-BLM cooperative agreement, he said.
“A lot of them would have just bagged it, especially the suction dredgers, because it would be just too expensive if they would have had to pay the full bond or post it themselves,” Martellaro said.
The agreement affects about 95 operators working in Alaska this year, he said. Provisions were established at the beginning of the year so placer miners and prospectors could use the bonding pool for this operating season.
Bonding is now mandatory for all sizes of operations on federal lands, Martellaro said, while the state does not require bonds for less than five acres of disturbance.
“The difference is, BLM requires bonds for everything, even if they just have a camp,” he said.
In a press release, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said the cooperative agreement is the only one of its type approved by the Department of Interior solicitor’s office in Washington. Agreement affects exploration The agreement also affects exploration efforts, said Curt Freeman, a Fairbanks-based consulting geologist.
“Given the presence of both state and federal lands in most of Alaska’s active mining districts, the MOU not only makes federal ground available for exploration and development but renders closely tied state lands tenable as well,” he said. “By this I mean if the state lands were located such that both state and federal lands would have to be explored to make a project ‘fly’ and no MOU was in place, neither state nor federal lands would get developed.”
| 