I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1366
To provide for the location of multiple hardrock mining mill sites, to establish
the Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY14, 2025
Mr. A
MODEIof Nevada (for himself and Mr. HORSFORD) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To provide for the location of multiple hardrock mining mill
sites, to establish the Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mining Regulatory 4
Clarity Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. HARDROCK MINING MILL SITES. 6
(a) M
ULTIPLEMILLSITES.—Section 2337 of the Re-7
vised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 42) is amended by adding at 8
the end the following: 9
‘‘(c) A
DDITIONALMILLSITES.— 10
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‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 1
‘‘(A) M
ILL SITE.—The term ‘mill site’ 2
means a location of public land that is reason-3
ably necessary for waste rock or tailings dis-4
posal or other operations reasonably incident to 5
mineral development on, or production from 6
land included in a plan of operations. 7
‘‘(B) O
PERATIONS; OPERATOR.—The 8
terms ‘operations’ and ‘operator’ have the 9
meanings given those terms in section 3809.5 10
of title 43, Code of Federal Regulations (as in 11
effect on the date of enactment of this sub-12
section). 13
‘‘(C) P
LAN OF OPERATIONS .—The term 14
‘plan of operations’ means a plan of operations 15
that an operator must submit and the Secretary 16
of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, 17
as applicable, must approve before an operator 18
may begin operations, in accordance with, as 19
applicable— 20
‘‘(i) subpart 3809 of title 43, Code of 21
Federal Regulations (or successor regula-22
tions establishing application and approval 23
requirements); and 24
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‘‘(ii) part 228 of title 36, Code of 1
Federal Regulations (or successor regula-2
tions establishing application and approval 3
requirements). 4
‘‘(D) P
UBLIC LAND.—The term ‘public 5
land’ means land owned by the United States 6
that is open to location under sections 2319 7
through 2344 of the Revised Statutes (30 8
U.S.C. 22 et seq.), including— 9
‘‘(i) land that is mineral-in-character 10
(as defined in section 3830.5 of title 43, 11
Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect 12
on the date of enactment of this sub-13
section)); 14
‘‘(ii) nonmineral land (as defined in 15
section 3830.5 of title 43, Code of Federal 16
Regulations (as in effect on the date of en-17
actment of this subsection)); and 18
‘‘(iii) land where the mineral char-19
acter has not been determined. 20
‘‘(2) I
N GENERAL .—Notwithstanding sub-21
sections (a) and (b), where public land is needed by 22
the proprietor of a lode or placer claim for oper-23
ations in connection with any lode or placer claim 24
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within the proposed plan of operations, the propri-1
etor may— 2
‘‘(A) locate and include within the plan of 3
operations as many mill site claims under this 4
subsection as are reasonably necessary for its 5
operations; and 6
‘‘(B) use or occupy public land in accord-7
ance with an approved plan of operations. 8
‘‘(3) M
ILL SITES CONVEY NO MINERAL 9
RIGHTS.—A mill site under this subsection does not 10
convey mineral rights to the locator. 11
‘‘(4) S
IZE OF MILL SITES.—A location of a sin-12
gle mill site under this subsection shall not exceed 13
5 acres. 14
‘‘(5) M
ILL SITE AND LODE OR PLACER CLAIMS 15
ON SAME TRACTS OF PUBLIC LAND .—A mill site 16
may be located under this subsection on a tract of 17
public land on which the claimant or operator main-18
tains a previously located lode or placer claim. 19
‘‘(6) E
FFECT ON MINING CLAIMS .—The loca-20
tion of a mill site under this subsection shall not af-21
fect the validity of any lode or placer claim, or any 22
rights associated with such a claim. 23
‘‘(7) P
ATENTING.—A mill site under this sec-24
tion shall not be eligible for patenting. 25
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‘‘(8) SAVINGS PROVISIONS.—Nothing in this 1
subsection— 2
‘‘(A) diminishes any right (including a 3
right of entry, use, or occupancy) of a claimant; 4
‘‘(B) creates or increases any right (includ-5
ing a right of exploration, entry, use, or occu-6
pancy) of a claimant on land that is not open 7
to location under the general mining laws; 8
‘‘(C) modifies any provision of law or any 9
prior administrative action withdrawing land 10
from location or entry; 11
‘‘(D) limits the right of the Federal Gov-12
ernment to regulate mining and mining-related 13
activities (including requiring claim validity ex-14
aminations to establish the discovery of a valu-15
able mineral deposit) in areas withdrawn from 16
mining, including under— 17
‘‘(i) the general mining laws; 18
‘‘(ii) the Federal Land Policy and 19
Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 20
et seq.); 21
‘‘(iii) the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 22
1131 et seq.); 23
‘‘(iv) sections 100731 through 100737 24
of title 54, United States Code; 25
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‘‘(v) the Endangered Species Act of 1
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.); 2
‘‘(vi) division A of subtitle III of title 3
54, United States Code (commonly re-4
ferred to as the ‘National Historic Preser-5
vation Act’); or 6
‘‘(vii) section 4 of the Act of July 23, 7
1955 (commonly known as the ‘Surface 8
Resources Act of 1955’) (69 Stat. 368, 9
chapter 375; 30 U.S.C. 612); 10
‘‘(E) restores any right (including a right 11
of entry, use, or occupancy, or right to conduct 12
operations) of a claimant that— 13
‘‘(i) existed prior to the date on which 14
the land was closed to, or withdrawn from, 15
location under the general mining laws; 16
and 17
‘‘(ii) that has been extinguished by 18
such closure or withdrawal; or 19
‘‘(F) modifies section 404 of division E of 20
the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 21
(Public Law 118–42).’’. 22
(b) A
BANDONEDHARDROCKMINEFUND.— 23
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established in 24
the Treasury of the United States a separate ac-25
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count, to be known as the ‘‘Abandoned Hardrock 1
Mine Fund’’ (referred to in this subsection as the 2
‘‘Fund’’). 3
(2) S
OURCE OF DEPOSITS .—Any amounts col-4
lected by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to 5
the claim maintenance fee under section 10101(a)(1) 6
of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 7
(30 U.S.C. 28f(a)(1)) on mill sites located under 8
subsection (c) of section 2337 of the Revised Stat-9
utes (30 U.S.C. 42) shall be deposited into the 10
Fund. 11
(3) U
SE.—The Secretary of the Interior may 12
make expenditures from amounts available in the 13
Fund, without further appropriations, only to carry 14
out section 40704 of the Infrastructure Investment 15
and Jobs Act (30 U.S.C. 1245). 16
(4) A
LLOCATION OF FUNDS .—Amounts made 17
available under paragraph (3)— 18
(A) shall be allocated in accordance with 19
section 40704(e)(1) of the Infrastructure In-20
vestment and Jobs Act (30 U.S.C. 1245(e)(1)); 21
and 22
(B) may be transferred in accordance with 23
section 40704(e)(2) of that Act (30 U.S.C. 24
1245(e)(2)). 25
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(c) CLERICALAMENDMENTS.—Section 10101 of the 1
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (30 U.S.C. 2
28f) is amended— 3
(1) by striking ‘‘the Mining Law of 1872 (30 4
U.S.C. 28–28e)’’ each place it appears and inserting 5
‘‘sections 2319 through 2344 of the Revised Stat-6
utes (30 U.S.C. 22 et seq.)’’; 7
(2) in subsection (a)— 8
(A) in paragraph (1)— 9
(i) in the second sentence, by striking 10
‘‘Such claim maintenance fee’’ and insert-11
ing the following: 12
‘‘(B) F
EE.—The claim maintenance fee 13
under subparagraph (A)’’; and 14
(ii) in the first sentence, by striking 15
‘‘The holder of’’ and inserting the fol-16
lowing: 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The holder of’’; and 18
(B) in paragraph (2)— 19
(i) in the second sentence, by striking 20
‘‘Such claim maintenance fee’’ and insert-21
ing the following: 22
‘‘(B) F
EE.—The claim maintenance fee 23
under subparagraph (A)’’; and 24
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(ii) in the first sentence, by striking 1
‘‘The holder of’’ and inserting the fol-2
lowing: 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The holder of’’; and 4
(3) in subsection (b)— 5
(A) in the second sentence, by striking 6
‘‘The location fee’’ and inserting the following: 7
‘‘(2) F
EE.—The location fee’’; and 8
(B) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘The 9
claim main tenance fee’’ and inserting the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The claim maintenance 12
fee’’. 13
Æ
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