Oregon Dunes Recreation Area: Patenting of Mining Claims Complies with Law

摘要

The Mining Law of 1872 allows U.S. citizens and businesses to locate miningclaims on most federal lands and then to obtain full title to these lands through a process called patenting. In 1959, mining claims were filed for silica sand along the Oregon coast. In 1961, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management removed from 18,000 acres of national forest lands, including the mining claims, from further mineral entry. In 1972, the Congress established the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area which included those withdrawn lands. On October 10, 1989, at the request of the claim holder, the federal government transferred title through the patent process to 780 acres of mining claims in this scenic and valuable area. Concerned over the transfer of land within the recreation area to private ownership, the Chairman, Subcommittee on Mining and Natural Resources, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, asked GAO to (1) examine the federal government's determination that the sand on the claims is an uncommon variety, which brings the claims under the Mining Law of 1872 and therefore allows patenting and (2) determine whether federal agencies and the claim holder followed the legal and administrative requirements for patenting and whether the government was required by the Coastal Zone Management Act to notify the state of Oregon that it intended to patent the claims.