Anchorage Daily News

Dave Atcheson's Dec. 19 Compass article, "Mining should be held to same rules as other industries," requires a reply. First of all. Pebble will not be North America's largest open pit. That honor falls to Bingham Canyon, the largest copper open pit in the world. Pebble might be developed as a pit half as deep as Bingham, as a wholly underground mine, both pit and underground, or -- if the numbers do not pan out -- there will be no mine.

Atcheson's comment "Furthermore they (miners) often conduct business on lands where oil companies would never be allowed to set foot" is incomprehensible. No industry can set foot on some 150 million acres of federal conservation lands. In general the lands sought by either mining or oil are geologically separate. The areas potentially impacted by oil development are much greater than those possibly affected by hard rock mining. Sedimentary basins favorable for oil and gas development are large compared to the limited acreage underlain by mineable hard rock resources.

Acheson's references to the federal mining law are entirely off the wall. Lands occupied by the Pebble project are state owned and are subject to state mining law, a law fundamentally different from the federal law.

Under state law, the mineral resource belongs to the state. By legislation and court decision, that means the minerals are subject to rents and royalties as well as state taxes, on both income and net proceeds.

Federal Bureau of Land Management lands near Pebble are subject to the federal mining law, but they are not available for a few dollars per acre. The ability to obtain federal mining land by patent for $5 per acre has been subject to a moratorium for at least a decade, and it never was as inexpensive as it sounded.

Former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt often cited a large Nevada mine that was obtained for only hundreds of dollars. But he neglected to say that it cost the company more than a billion dollars to prove the discoveries that entitled it to patent.

The basic federal mining law has been amended more than 100 times. Its operations are subject to all subsequent federal acts including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act.

Because metal resource prices reflect mostly the cost of production, and profits are limited by competition, mining can never yield the percentage profitability of oil and gas. But it can and will furnish rural employment, build infrastructure and pay the taxes that support borough administration and local education.

Alaska mining does pay its way. If proven economically feasible, Pebble will pay very well. I support Pebble's access to the state large mine permitting process.

Charles C. "Chuck" Hawley is an independent consulting geologist and a board member for Truth About Pebble.

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