Looting the American Public · Investigation · 1872–present
Take the gold. Pay the public nothing.
Under the General Mining Law of 1872, hardrock minerals — gold, silver, copper, uranium — taken from federal public land carry no federal royalty. Coal and oil/gas pay 12.5%. Hardrock pays zero.
FACT
§2 · Thesis
The quietest giveaway needs no action at all: a 19th-century law keeps the public's share of hardrock minerals at zero by default.
Signed by Grant in 1872, never repealed, still governing 21st-century extraction.
The number
$0
federal production royalty on gold, silver, copper and uranium mined from public land — versus 12.5% on coal, oil and gas from the same ground.
General Mining Law of 1872 (17 Stat. 91); CRS RL33908
§5 · Graded Claim
Hardrock mining on federal public land pays no federal royalty on the minerals it extracts — the central structural fact of the 1872 law.
FACT
Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum and uranium are 'locatable'; a company can extract and sell them and owe the public nothing on the value taken. Reform to add a royalty has been debated for decades.
§5 · Graded Claim
The only recurring payment is a $125-per-claim annual maintenance fee (plus a $30 first-time location fee) — not a royalty on what is mined.
FACT
Fees adjusted every five years for inflation, last set in 2004; small operators can waive the maintenance fee via assessment work. This is the public's compensation for the land being mined.
§5 · Graded Claim
Under the patent system, a miner could buy the land outright — surface and minerals — for $2.50/acre (placer) or $5/acre (lode): the 1872 price, never updated.
FACT
The clearest illustration of a statute frozen in the 19th century governing modern extraction.
§5 · Graded Claim
Congress has frozen most new patents through an annual moratorium since 1994 — but has never repealed the zero-royalty core.
PROBABLY TRUE
The moratorium rides the annual Interior appropriations bill and stops the $2.50–$5/acre land sales in practice; it is temporary and does not touch royalty-free extraction. Graded PROBABLY TRUE pending a current line-item confirmation; the zero-royalty structure it leaves intact is FACT.
§6 · Record vs Narrative
Same public land. Opposite deals.
Coal, oil & gas
- Leased under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.
- Pay a federal production royalty — 12.5% under the 2025 law.
- The public collects a share of what's extracted.
Hardrock (gold, copper, uranium)
- Located under the General Mining Law of 1872.
- Pay no federal production royalty at all.
- Only a $125/claim annual fee — the public's whole take.
▦ Still unknown
How much royalty the public forgoes each year is not asserted here — estimates exist but vary with metal prices and method.
This line is still blank
We assert the zero-royalty structure, which is documented, not a specific annual dollar figure we have not verified to standard.
Help us fill it →§7 · Why it matters now
The giveaway that runs on inertia.
The other cases in this hub required an action — a proclamation, a budget bill, a lease sale. This one requires nothing: the 1872 law is already on the books, so the public's share of hardrock minerals stays at zero unless Congress changes it, and for 150 years it hasn't. When the monument cuts reopen protected land to claims, this is the regime they fall under.
▸ Looting the American Public →
▦ Ledger gaps
Help us fill these lines.
- OpenA verified annual figure for the royalty value the public forgoes on hardrock extraction.
- OpenWhether current appropriations still carry the patent moratorium, and any move to lift it.
Help fill these →