In order to promote westward expansion after the Civil War, the federal government adopted a policy of encouraging private extraction of the mineral riches lying west of the Mississippi River. This policy decision culminated in the passage of the General Mining Law of 1872,¹ which effectively legitimized existing mining claims on public domain² lands in the West and allowed any citizen to stake and hold a new claim with little difficulty. Under the law, a prospector was given free access to the public lands and could obtain possession of a 20-acre tract holding a valuable mineral deposit simply by "locating" a claim on it. Moreover, he could ultimately gain fee title to the land by acquiring a "patent" for his claim.

The Mining Law, which is now 106 years old, still governs the disposition of "hard rock" minerals, which consist generally of metallic ores, on that portion of the public domain that has not been "withdrawn" from the law's operation.³ Its detractors view the statute as an anachronistic remnant of a philosophy of short-term private exploitation of public resources that has long since been repudiated and replaced with the policy of multiple-use management. Last year, in his Environmental Message, President Carter added his voice to the chorus demanding that the law be changed.⁴