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Craters so huge they can be seen from space. Thousands of miles of rivers and streams polluted by acidic runoff. Miners can pay the government no more than $5 an acre for the chance to make a fortune or go bust -- and stick taxpayers with millions of dollars in cleanup costs. It is the legacy of an 1872 federal law that still allows miners to take precious metals from public land for next to nothing.
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PART 1 |
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The General Mining Act of 1872 has left a legacy of riches and ruin
Some people call it corporate welfare, others a fair deal. No matter how you look at it, a 129-year-old law lets miners extract a fortune from public land, paying virtually nothing to the government and often leaving the taxpayers to clean up the mess.
Town holds its breath watching price of gold
The residents of Yarnell, Ariz., worry that a proposed gold mine near the town's main street could destroy their way of life.
>> Public Lands, Toxic Treasure: Five of the nation's worst mines
>> Map: Areas with abandoned mines
>> Map: Where mines have polluted water
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PART 2 |
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More than a century of mining has left the West deeply scarred
The General Mining Law of 1872 was written for a pick-and-shovel age, but modern mining techniques carve out entire mountains and use tons of toxic chemicals at massive industrial sites. When things go wrong, these state-of-the-art operations can unleash hell on earth.
>> Chart: "The Modern Gold Rush"
'A wounded mountain spewing poison'
The legacy of mining near Montana's Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is a dismal one.
Too often, government is left with the cleanup costs
The landscape near Deadwood, S.D., is hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of waste rock and pits filled with acidic water -- leftovers from a "heap-leach" mine where cyanide was used to extract minute quantities of gold from mountains of rock.
Desert town keeps eye on cleanup
San Luis, Colo., has survived for more than 150 years because it protected the little water the high desert provides. Now a vast pit is leaking toxic chemicals into streams where families graze their goats and cattle.
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PART 3 |
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A good deal for miners often isn't for Uncle Sam
Mining is a high=risk business: Strike it rich, and a shoestring operation can bring in fabulous riches. Guess wrong and you may lose everything you own -- and then some.
U.S. gets burned by lax Canadian oversight
So-called junior mining companies are considered crucial by the hard-rock mining industry because they locate many of the hard-to-find deposits that pan out. But when the venture collapses, the junior lacks the money to repair environmental damage -- leaving American taxpayers to pay its bill.
Innocent financier or irresponsible polluter?
Drug dealer, hippie, venture capitalist, mining executive. Robert Friedland is one of the most controversial promoters of junior mining stocks.
Pegasus Gold -- from boom to bankruptcy
Pegasus was flying high until gold prices plummeted, leaving U.S. taxpayers to cover the tens of millions of dollars it will cost to repair environmental damage at abandoned mines.
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PART 4 |
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Powerful friends in Congress
Everyone agrees that the mining law is obsolete, but decades of attempts to make it a better deal for taxpayers and ease environmental damage have been stymied by a powerful lobby with friends in the right places.
>> Who contributes and who benefits
>> A timeline of mining reform efforts
>> Where to learn more / Credits
New, tighter regulations irk miners
Should federal officials have the right to tell miners they can't dig on public land, or require them to post bonds covering 100 percent of cleanup costs if they go bankrupt? The Clinton administration said yes. The Bush administration is thinking it over.
Proposed gold mine divides the Okanogan
Some say the proposed Crown Jewel Mine would spoil a special place in north-central Washington. Others say the region's anemic economy needs the jobs -- top-paying work that many communities in the rural West would be glad to get.
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