A Message from the Executive Director
Dear Members, As some of you may know, for several years, Alaska’s miners have encountered significant problems with our existing law on mineral tenure, Title 38 of the Alaska Land Act, Article 8, Mining Rights. I’m excited to say we are finally making progress toward resolving these problems with Sen. Click Bishop’s introduction of Senate Bill 155, an Act relating to exploration and mining rights. Placer miners and large commercial operators have experienced receiving notices of abandoned claims arising from unclear statutory language regarding affidavits of labor and locator qualification requirements. Some miners have spent thousands of dollars attempting to resolve issues with DNR or competing claimants that arise due to vague laws and regulations about what is required to maintain mining claims. Some have even lost their state mining claims from simply making a minor mistake or clerical error on forms or from confusion and different interpretations of the law. AMA has worked with DNR for more than four years on these issues. This bill is a product of hours and hours of collaboration and deliberation between industry and agency, and attention by Sen. Bishop, a miner himself. All parties have worked hard to develop a solution that will streamline administrative processes, reduce conflicts between miners and reduce conflicts between miners and DNR. SB155 does: 1. Update types of entities (LLCs, trusts, etc) that can hold claims and provide curative mechanism for qualification defects. 2. Clarify that a MTRSC location establishes mineral rights to all land open and available within the location. This is the interpretation that has worked effectively for both industry and the state for 20 years. 3. Resolve issues with Annual Labor
Monroe, Greg Beischer and I provided extensive testimony on the impact to miners and described personal experiences. You can watch that hearing and track all aspects of this bill on the Legislative bill monitoring website BASIS. Simply visit www.akleg.gov and enter SB155 in the search bar at the top. Please note that this was the first hearing of SB155 in its first Committee. There will no doubt be changes to this bill, some of which have been suggested by the AMA working group of the State Oversight Committee, as it moves through the legislative process. We ask that claim holders remain engaged in this issue (with our help). We would encourage you to submit letters in support and provide testimony when we prompt you, via AMA Action Alerts by email, social media, and at our local branch meetings. Personal stories help to educate all Alaskans on this highly technical and critical issue. The next hearing for this bill will be at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14th in Senate Resources. You can provide your thoughts in advance by emailing the Senate Resources Committee, and sharing them with the AMA office to ensure your voice is heard. In the hearing Feb. 5, Senate Resources Chair Peter Micciche said, “Well to me, this sounds like a fairness issue.” We couldn’t agree more. We’re going to keep working hard to ensure this bill gets the attention it deserves to resolve these longstanding and unacceptable issues. Please let me know how I can help you better understand and be engaged in this process to ensure our success. Many thanks,
including: i. Puts labor affidavit requirements clearly in statute ii. Requires DNR to first send a notice of an opportunity to cure clerical errors prior to sending a notice of abandonment. This includes notification to claim holder provision and 90 days in which claim holder can correct any errors iii. Updates list of examples for qualifying work and provides that cash payment can be made for no more than five years 4. Provide more certainty to improve opportunity to convert to state claims. SB155 does not: 1. Impose more work to state agencies, including DNR 2. Impose more work on miners 3. Regulate environmental aspects of mining operations SB155 was heard for the first time in the Senate Resources Committee on Feb. 5. Sen. Bishop and his staff provided a superb overview of the mining claims staking structure in Alaska and the existing issues. In addition, Karl Hanneman, Ramona
Deantha Crockett Executive Director
Executive Board Bill Jeffress, President SRK Consulting, Anchorage Barkley Kleven, First Vice President Kinross-Fort Knox, Fairbanks Kim Aasand, Treasurer Aasand & Glore LLC, Anchorage Branch Chairmen Ted Hawley, Anchorage Lorali Simon, Denali Mark Huffington, Fairbanks
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www.alaskaminers.org I The Alaska Miner I February 2020
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