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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 28, 2001

NMA CHIEF URGES SUPPORT FOR NATIONAL MINERALS POLICY "A HEALTHY FUNCTIONING NATION NEEDS A FLOW OF RESOURCES"

Las Vegas -- The National Mining Association today offered to work with the Bush administration and with Congress to update the nation's mining law and practices in ways that protect the public land and benefit the public interest.

In a speech to U.S. Department of Interior and state regulators, NMA President and CEO

Jack N. Gerard emphasized that up to 75 percent of the important minerals and metals come mostly from public lands, and that public lands contain more mineral resources than most nations of the world. "America is one of the world's resource-rich nations," Gerard said, "but American mining can't deliver to the public that which practice has denied to the public."

Gerard's remarks come on the heels of an October 25 decision by the Department of Interior to revise and amend the Section 3809 rules (those governing hardrock mining on public lands) to make them more workable and consistent with a recent National Academy of Sciences study. Interior Secretary Gale Norton also proposed modernizing the General Mining Law, a move long supported by the mining industry.

"We recognize the need for flexibility in settling these questions," Gerard said, adding the industry is ready to pay reasonable royalties and holding fees, and tackle new approaches on abandoned mine lands. But -- Gerard added -- "Congress and the BLM, along with the mining industry and its critics must "move beyond the 3809 rules and quarrels of the last century and the century before that."
Gerard clarified that industry complaints are not with the stringency of the process. "The industry can and does meet stringent environmental requirements every day."

Gerard referred to recent testimony in the House of Representatives which revealed:

• Resources on public lands are a primary advantage for American workers;
• Continued withdrawal of public lands will deprive rising generations of these advantages and resources;
• If we are to replenish the production we have now, we must begin prospecting soon for the metals and minerals of 10 and 20 years hence; and
• The U.S. is no longer competitive for mineral exploration.

"We can secure both the future of protected lands and a flow of resources to the public from the public land in the public interest," Gerard said. "When we do these things, we will have delivered a functional National Minerals Policy that satisfies the really important criteria."

The U.S. mining industry produces coal, metals, building materials, and many other essential minerals that define the daily lives of 281 million Americans. The mining industry generates over $500 billion in total economic benefit each year and helps to sustain nearly 3 million U.S. jobs.