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Mineral tenure still remains top priority
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BY MIKE SATRE In August 1939, miners in Alaska joined to form the Alaska Miners Association. Eighty years ago, they knew they had to stand together to fight “one-size-fits-all” laws and regulations promulgated in Washington D.C. without any thought as to their impact on Alaska’s miners. In this case, it was the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which did many good things, but failed to understand the reality of the long hours that must be worked in Alaska’s mining camps and family run operations during the short summer season. Eighty years later, the Alaska Miners Association is as strong as ever. This is due to people and companies like you who understand the power of standing together to fulfill our mission to advocate for and promote responsible mineral development in the state of Alaska. We have been part of many successes over the past few years, including defeating the Stand for Salmon ballot initiative, stopping duplicative “one-size-fits-all” Federal rulemaking under CERCLA 108(b) and helping, through our political action committee AMAPAC, to support mining-friendly candidates around the state. But, as always, our work is not done. One year
ago in this column, I shared AMA’s efforts on addressing the mineral tenure issues that plague the holders of state mining claims in Alaska. In a nutshell, the individuals and companies that have been willing to put forth the effort to find a mineral deposit, stake claims and ensure those claims are held through continued work or payments, are finding that something as simple as a typo in paperwork filed years ago may mean their claims are null and void. While this issue might not make headlines, it has cost miners in Alaska millions of dollars and threatens investment on state lands at a time when we need it the most. During the past year, there have been proposed regulatory solutions as well as many efforts to find a legislative fix to the problem. Unfortunately, even though AMA has made a clear and convincing case for what reforms are needed, and has even drafted simple legislation to fix this once and for all, we continue to run into a brick wall. Granted, the current legislature has had other budgetary fish to fry and we can grudgingly see how a fix to mineral tenure might not be a priority. But that does not excuse the inaction at the Department of Natural Resources in abdicating a leadership role on this issue.
The Alaska Miner
July 2019
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