The General Mining act allows miners and mining companies to lease federal land for mining purposes for only $5 per acre.
Early in the Obama administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stated that reforming this law would be a priority of the new administration. A bill was proposed requiring royalty payments to the government for gold, silver, and platinum mined from federal lands, but some congressmen criticized the proposed fees as too high, and the bill failed without coming up for a vote.
In short, this year mining companies will extract between $2 and $3 Billion in natural resources on federal lands while only paying $5 per acre they mine on. Please sign this petition if you believe our government should charge some amount more than $5 per acre to mine on federal land.