BushCo Hands Colorado Mountaintop To Lead Mining Company - $5 An Acre

[hatrack]

"Last month the Bush administration handed a multinational mining
company 155 acres of federally owned, prime mountaintop real
estate near a Colorado ski resort. The price? Just $5 an acre
(a total of $875), in an area where 1/10 of an acre fetches as
much as $100,000.<1>

The sweetheart giveaway sailed through under a 132-year-old
federal law that allows mining companies to purchase
unrestricted patents on public land, and then use the land for
their own profit -- by mining it for silver, gold or other
minerals or even by developing it into luxury condominiums and
getaway homes.

The 1872 Mining Law, which has never been updated to reflect
21st century real estate values, has enabled mining companies to
extract more than $245 billion in metals and minerals from
public lands without paying a single subsidy to taxpayers since
the statute went into effect 132 years ago. It currently applies
to more than 270 million acres of public lands in the U.S., or
"2/3 of the land the federal government holds in trust for all
Americans."<2>

Phelps Dodge Corp. used the 1872 law to apply for nine patents
on U.S. Forest Service land at the top of Mount Emmons, also
known as the "Red Lady," just three miles west of the Crested
Butte ski area in Colorado. The area, which lies within the
boundaries of Gunnison National Forest, is the site of a
longstanding battle between mining interests and the local
community, which has since filed suit against the federal Bureau
of Land Management protesting its sale of the patents. The suit
is being brought by the Gunnison County Board of Commissioners,
the Town of Crested Butte and High Country Citizens'
Alliance."<3>

EDIT

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/

[workforpower]

1. Is that the law that...

Bruce Babbit failed to change. He tried but the mining corps. buggered and lied. The big scare was in. Thats it the 1872 law. It aint Gaggy Hayes and a mule anymore. It belongs to us,but greed is king these days.