DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1976 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1975. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE-MINING IN THE PARKS WITNESSES NATHANIEL P. REED, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR FISH AND GARY EVERHARDT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE KENNETH K. SMALLWOOD, STAFF ASSISTANT, MINERALS AREA DAVID JONES, CHIEF, BRANCH OF MINING AND MINERALS, DIVI- WILL L. DARE, CHIEF, OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL COORDINATION FRANCIS M. WILES, DIRECTOR OF BUDGET, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OPENING REMARKS Mr. YATES. The committee will come to order. The purpose of this hearing is to allow members of the committee to become more familiar with mining activities in national parks and national monuments and what the Department's current policy is with respect to these activities. The hearing is only to provide information for the members of the committee. I understand that there are legislative hearings scheduled in both the House and the Senate, on the same subject. I am pleased that hearings are being conducted because I believe mining in parks and monuments is a significant problem. The necessary legislation will, of course, come out of the legislative committees, but we are interested in what the costs and expenses are likely to be. We are glad to have with us our old friend, Mr. Nathaniel Reed, who is the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. Mr. Reed, we would like to have your assessment of the situation. Mr. REED. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. May I introduce my associates: Frank Wiles, the Department's Budget Officer; Michele Me trinko, our Associate Solicitor's Office; Gary Everhardt, the Director of the National Park Service; John Morgan, Associate Director of Minerals and Materials Supply/Demand Analysis, Bureau of Mines; Mr. Frank Edwards, Assistant Director, Bureau of Land Management; and Mr. Kenneth Smallwood from the Forest Service. Mr. YATES. I should state for the record that Mr. Berklund, Director of the Bureau of Land Management, called me and told me that he couldn't be here this morning and we are very glad to have you substituting for him, Mr. Edwards. I also received a call from Assistant Secretary Carlson this morning, who expressed some concern as to whether or not we are withdrawing too much mineral land from the Nation's productive inventory. Of course, that is one of the reasons we are having this hearing with Mr. Reed, who debated that statement with a rather enigmatic smile. DEGREE OF MINING IN PARKS Mr. REED. If I may, Mr. Chairman, I would like to respond to the committee's questions that were given to us. With regard to question No. 1, mining in the parks-not only the five parks that have bills but all parks and monuments and No. 2, the kinds of minerals being mined in the parks, I would like to respond to those two questions with one answer as follows: Death Valley National Monument: Talc and borates production, eight tale mines and two borate mines, all surface mines; production: borate-160,000 tons per year, $12 million a year gross estimate; talc-100,000 tons per year, $3 million a year gross estimate. Mount McKinley National Park: 100 tons of antimony concentrates with $60,000 Mr. YATES. May I interrupt for a moment? You were talking about Death Valley. We have a list indicating that the other minerals taken out of Death Valley are tungsten, hematite, copper, lead, zinc, antimony, gold, and silver. Do your records indicate that? Mr. REED. The total production of all minerals besides talc and borates has not exceeded $3 million total. Mr. YATES. I see. Did you draw a cutoff line? Mr. REED. I think we drew a line. Mr. Jones, how did we arrive at the answer so as not to include that? Mr. JONES. This answer was provided by our mining engineer at Death Valley from records of the production in Death Valley. Mr. YATES. The information that I have which came from the Senate Interior Committee indicates that the production figures from 1936 to 1963 were: Talc, 754,000 tons; boron minerals, 8,260 tons; manganese, 200 tons; asbestos ore, 800 tons; tungsten, 2,040 short tons; hematite, 300 tons; copper, 42,600 pounds; lead, 5,032,300; zinc, 604,000 pounds; antimony, 60,000 pounds; gold, 25,780 ounces; silver, 125,540 ounces. We are also told that there are 50,000 unpatented and 267 patented mining claims outstanding in the monument. Does that agree with your figures? Mr. REED. The mining claim data supported by our figures: 50,000 unpatented claims and 7,106.83 acres in 267 patented claims and mill site locations. I cannot speak for the list of the other minerals, only for talc and borates. Those figures would be from the Bureau of Mines. Mr. YATES. I recognize that mining data falls within the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Mines, rather than the Park Service. However, these claims are on Park Service land, and I am sure you cooperate with the Bureau of Mines. Insofar as statistics are concerned, I think the Bureau of Mines probably knows a little more than you do. What we are interested in is the problem. We know what minerals are likely to be taken out of Death Valley; we now want to establish their value. We also want to know what impact this mining will have on your responsibility for protecting the parks and our natural resources. Mr. REED. If I may finish up those I can ruminate. Mr. YATES. I would rather you testify than ruminate. Mr. REED. I will testify with pleasure, Mr. Chairman. Mount McKinley National Park: 100 tons of antimony concentrates, worth $60,000 per annum. Mr. REGULA. Mr. Chairman, excuse me. Is that $60,000 figure the gross market value, or is that the return to the Government on royalties? Mr. REED. Gross market value. Lake Mead National Recreation Area: no production, but exploration is continuing for gold, silver, and uranium. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area: No production, but exploration is continuing for asphalt and uranium. Whiskeytown National Recreation Area: Minor gold exploration, but no production. Capitol Reef National Park: Clair Bird is producing a limited amount of decorative stone from a State mineral lease where the Federal Government has acquired the land by exchange but subject to the mineral lease. Recent sporadic attempts have been made to explore for uranium. Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area: Bentonite has been mined in the past, and currently there may be some production from claims owned by American Colloid Co. NPS is collaborating with BLM regarding bentonite mining in the area of Wyoming, toward a common method of management. Grand Canyon National Park: The Orphan Mine is within a patented mining claim situated on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. The mine produced uranium ore between 1951 and 1969. Public Law 87-457, of May 26, 1962, restricted the surface use of the patented claim and gave the owner the right to mine, by underground methods only, up until 1987. Currently, the mine is not operating, but changes in the uranium price structure could make the mine economically sound again. ECONOMIC VALUE OF PARK MINING Question No. 3: Value to the national economy. The only important value to the national economy is the tale and borate mining in Death Valley. Closure of these mines would put an estimated 150 employees out of work and eliminate $15 million (estimate) of mineral production. Question No. 4: Cost to Government if mining is stopped. It is most difficult to estimate the cost because of the difficult appraisal problems involved in valuing mining property. That is generally left to the court. Question No. 5: Rehabilitation of mining areas if it is required: There has been no estimate made of this, but surely there would be need to make the acquired mining properties reasonably safe for the visiting public. This could consist of contouring open pit mines and all mine dumps and closing all entrances to underground mines. There are hundreds of abandoned underground mine openings in Joshua Tree National Monument, Saguaro National Monument, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Capitol Reef National Park, Death Valley National Monument, and others. DEPARTMENTAL POSITION ON DEATH VALLEY MINING Now, to flesh out further the particular mineral values in Death Valley, an agreed upon position was arrived at which is as follows: The chief value to the national economy from current production is derived from borates produced from Death Valley. The closure of these mines would put an estimated 150 employees out of work and eliminate an estimated $4 million of mineral production yearly. Such Federal policies as those expressed in the National Environmental Policy Act, however, require all Federal agencies to consider the relationships between local short term uses of man's environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long term productivity. In this light, the impact of such closure would be greater than mere current dollar value. Death Valley contains the only known significant domestic reserves of the specific high-grade borate mineral, colemanite. This area currently supplies 80 percent of our domestic colemanite, used principally in the manufacture of filament-grade fiberglass, and could continue at the present rate of production for at least 100 years on known reserves within the monument. The only other known resource of domestic colemanite is at the Anniversary Mine, on the border of the Lake Mead NRA in Nevada. The Park Service has estimated that 400,000 tons of colemanite bearing rock exists at this property. This would have to be mined by underground techniques, and if of comparable grade to that found in the Death Valley National Monument, could represent a supply of up to 6 years at current mining rates. The only other major supplier of colemanite is Turkey, but the grade shipped is inferior to that of the United States. Turkey is presently expanding its markets in Europe. If the present and proposed operations at the east end of the Monument were forced to close, the United States and most of the world would be dependent upon Turkev. and a grade and pricing situation could develop over which we would have no control. Further, we are currently 85 percent dependent upon foreign sources of another important fluxing agent, fluorspar. In the event our steel mills have to switch to colemanite instead of fluorspar, we could become further dependent upon foreign sources. STATUS OF WILDERNESS AREA PROPOSALS Answer to question 6. the status of wilderness area proposals for the various areas: The administration's decision to close all units of National Park Service save Glacier Bay National Monument |