Public land environmental mineral extraction(?).

Love ya buddy. Even when you're wrong. :)

It's a much longer story but we'll save that for me r another time.
 
Love ya buddy. Even when you're wrong. :)

It's a much longer story but we'll save that for me r another time.

Bah! Hardly ever am I wrong. ;) You on the other hand have to watch how much sugar is added to your partisan KoolAid. :D To those who drink the same... don't fret, just a fun humor jab. All in jest.

We need to place a placard of "Dr." Rodney King as a symbol of Multi Use Public Lands. With the caption, "Can't we all just get along?"
Get the industry and the enviros to find a level of arbitrated agreement for further Stillwater type mining operations. I know Randy was refering to Hunters sense of... the quote though I think it a humored fitting with the two extremes of multi use.

The constant problem, from my perspective (again for those nitpickers, not claiming fact ;) ) , No matter what, the vocals will raise hell for ANY attempt to open new mining opportunities - American Jobs, etc. Example... Keystone pipeline. Ya, divisive debate though a safe means to transit oil as is used non stop in Alaska but God Forbid, naive people led by the flavor of KoolAid served, people join in the ranks or trenched warfare.

This is the "Not in my country" type attitude that harms our ability to find more domestic resources. Ya, I know the keystone is not an extraction operation though it shares the, anti anything industrial, while posting their opposition on computers made with minerals extracted from foreign locations where "don't see, don't care" mentality perpetuates the anti domestic extraction, none the less the vehicles they drive, etc...
 
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When wells and mines are acquired shouldn't the company buying them be responsible to inspect and complete some type of report about the condition and past problems? Last year this oil spill through Grand Staircase was discovered and the company who owns the field plead it predated them. Seems like new owners from a liability standpoint would want to conduct these inspections to avoid getting dinged.
- SLTrib GSCNM Oil Spill - http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=57728795&itype=CMSID

Ben this one is in your wheelhouse of how can this be prevented?

GrandStaircaseOilSpill.jpg
 
I currently work at a Montana coal mine. Part of the mine has already been recmaimed and not at government expense. I could take the average person through the reclaimed area and they probably wouldnt know the area had been mined previously. Lots of sage grouse, some monster muleys and some monster bull elk.
Grazing practices IMO are more damaging to much of the west than mining.
 
Every time I hear someone say that based on new technology all of a sudden mining can be done cleanly in an environmentally friendly way. I think of Mt. Polly. I think of the need for Superfund. I think of acid mine drainage, and orange creeks and no fish. And I think of all the times someone who stands to profit has said "don't worry, it'll be different this time."
 
For every company like yours, there seems to be a dozen who want to run away. Just like with orphaned wells, etc - when we incentivize walking away rather than being a good partner, people get understandably upset with the industry. Glad to see your company shouldering it's duty.

Really only 1 out of 13 mines? That's quite a bold statement. It should be easy to name off 5 that have "walked away" in the last 10 years. Can you give us a list?
 
Every time I hear someone say that based on new technology all of a sudden mining can be done cleanly in an environmentally friendly way. I think of Mt. Polly. I think of the need for Superfund. I think of acid mine drainage, and orange creeks and no fish. And I think of all the times someone who stands to profit has said "don't worry, it'll be different this time."

What happened at Mt Polly? What is the long term environmental effect?

Please name off 5 operating mines in the US that have created any of the issues you list above that are negatively impacting the environment downstream. It should be easy since its so common.
 
It's never the operation that's the problem it's than damn "perpetuity" afterwards that haunts.
 
When wells and mines are acquired shouldn't the company buying them be responsible to inspect and complete some type of report about the condition and past problems? Last year this oil spill through Grand Staircase was discovered and the company who owns the field plead it predated them. Seems like new owners from a liability standpoint would want to conduct these inspections to avoid getting dinged.
- SLTrib GSCNM Oil Spill - http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=57728795&itype=CMSID

Ben this one is in your wheelhouse of how can this be prevented?

Troy,

Thanks for this. I had not seen this before.

There are a number of ways to prevent, but they require stricter regulations and more personnel for inspection and enforcement of existing law and reg while simultaneously working on updating state and federal laws to reflect conditions in today's development world. We also have to be realistic that we will never be able to eliminate this kind of negative aspect of mineral development totally (or at least in the near term, until we invest in technology development to get us there) which makes bonding and monitoring along with real net-gain conservation/mitigation the best ways to take care of it after the fact. This can be done both at the state and local level. We could also make the oil and gas industry use similar mitigation and reclamation standards that mining companies go through per the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

It may sound simple, but it isn't. Lots of mining companies assume the liability of the companies they absorb or whose assets they purchase. To BWalker's point - Mining does much better at reclamation than O&G, from my experience. But it's mandated in federal law because we had 100 years of rip and rape that we're still cleaning up today. The 77 act is relatively young compared to the vastly outdated 1872 Mining Law.
 
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