Privatization of Public Lands
by kathy@truthisbetter.org Last updated 2004-05-22

According to a report released the week of Saturday 15 May 2004 by the Environmental Working Group a total of 9.2 million acres of public land has been converted to private use under the 1872 mining law. The law intended that American citizens be allowed to stake claims on public land to extract mineral resources -- paying $5 an acre or less to buy public land. Corporations got the right to make claims on the land in 1898 when a Supreme Court decisions declared that corporations could act as "persons."

One gold mining company purchased $10 billion worth of land for just $10,000. In Colorado a company purchased more than $158 million dollars worth of land for just $875. Such fire-sale prices are possible because the law only requires that purchasers cover the adminstrative costs rather than compensate the American people for the actual value of the land and its resources. "For as little as $0.84 an acre, more than 28,000 companies and individuals have gained control of precious metals and minerals on 5.6 million acres of public land across 12 continental Western states," the report says. "Some of these companies are foreign-owned. None of them will pay anything to the federal government for the value of the minerals they extract from public property."