Following up on Squire Patton Boggs’s continuing coverage of the critical minerals industry, we examine some recent reforms in the federal permitting process which aim to ease supply-side constraints by expediting the development and exploitation of critical minerals. Rapidly mounting geopolitical tensions, East/West decoupling, and longstanding supply chain stresses underlie a new reality—global logistics now … Continue Reading
On November 27, 2020, the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) issued a proposed rule to add mining as a sector eligible for streamlined permitting under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41). Public comments on the proposed rule are due December 28, 2020. Enacted in 2015, FAST-41 created a new … Continue Reading
On July 19, 2019, the D.C. Circuit issued its decision in Idaho Conservation League v. Wheeler, upholding US EPA’s decision not to issue financial responsibility requirements for the hardrock mining industry under Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The requirements, if adopted, would have cost the hardrock mining industry … Continue Reading
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) officially delayed the effective date of the controversial “Examinations of Working Places in Metal and Nonmetal Mines” final rule by a full eight months to June 2, 2018 and temporarily reinstated the previous versions of the workplace examination rules – deemed 30 C.F.R. § 56.18002T and 30 C.F.R. § 57.18002T – that were in … Continue Reading
According to data released on October 11, 2016 by the US Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the fiscal year of 2016 was the “safest year in mining history.” Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, Joseph A. Main, announced at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver, West Virginia that between … Continue Reading
On June 8, 2016, the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) published the following two documents in the Federal Register, seeking information and comments from industry stakeholders: (1) a proposed rule addressing “Examinations of Working Places in Metal and Nonmetal Mines (MNM)”; and (2) a Request for Information (RFI) on “Exposure of Underground Miners to Diesel Exhaust.” … Continue Reading
US EPA has agreed to promulgate financial assurance rules for hard rock mining companies by December 1, 2017. Specifically, the agencies requirements will apply to facilities which extract or process metals (e.g., copper, gold, iron, lead, magnesium, molybdenum, silver, uranium, and zinc). The financial assurance requirements will obligate companies performing environmental cleanup to provide a … Continue Reading
Taxpayers in Western Australia have been left to foot the bill after Jirsch Sutherland, liquidator for the Kimberley Diamond Company Pty Ltd (“KDC”), used a legal loophole to handball expensive mining leases back to the Department of Mines and Petroleum (“DMP”). Care and maintenance costs for KDC’s Ellendale diamond mine amount to $100,000 (AUD) a … Continue Reading
Congress is moving quickly on multiple fronts in response to the August 2015 spill at the abandoned Gold King Mine in Colorado. Republicans in the House held a hearing on a package of mining reform bills proposed by Rep. Lamborn (R-CO), Rep. Hice (R-GA), and Rep. Hardy (R-NV) that would, respectively, promote private sector remediation … Continue Reading
On August 24, 2015, Judge H. Russel Holland of the US District Court for the District of Alaska dealt a blow to Pebble Limited Partnership’s (Pebble Partnership) efforts to obtain documents which it believes could support its claim that US EPA failed to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by coordinating with environmental … Continue Reading
This month, in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association, the US Supreme Court overturned the D.C. Circuit’s Paralyzed Veteran doctrine, rejecting nearly 20 years of precedent requiring federal agencies to abide by notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures when they substantially alter an “interpretive” rule. However, the decision also hints that even broader changes may be afoot. Writing in … Continue Reading
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is rolling out an aggressive fatality prevention initiative in response to a spike in fatalities at metal and non-metal (MNM) mines over the last sixteen months. Since October 2013, 37 MNM miners have lost their lives, more than double the number of MNM fatalities in the previous three … Continue Reading
On November 25, 2014, a federal judge granted a motion for preliminary injunction, and ordered US EPA to stop all work pertaining to its investigation of and proposed plan to restrict discharges from the prospective Pebble Mine project near Bristol Bay in Alaska. The plaintiff, Pebble Partnership, contended that US EPA failed to comply with the requirements … Continue Reading
The Western Australia State Government has announced that 25 major mining and infrastructure projects are at risk of being considered unlawful. This announcement follows a State Supreme Court decision which held that a failure to manage conflicts of interest had invalidated the approval process of the Western Australia Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Case The … Continue Reading
On July 11, in National Mining Association v. McCarthy – a case very important to the surface coal mining industry in the Appalachians – the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected industry arguments that US EPA had improperly adopted policies that made it harder for such mines to obtain two kinds of Clean Water Act (CWA) permits: permits under Section … Continue Reading
