The more than 400 members of the society include leading public officials concerned with mineral resources, outstanding educators at our leading universities, and management personnel of most of the corporations engaged in the minerals industry.

The membership of the society, more so than any other similar organization, is a concentration of those persons in the United States who carry for the Nation the responsibility of maintaining our mineral productivity at the maximum level possible.

It is appropriate, therefore, that the society should study carefully the impact of the Wilderness Act, S. 174, on the responsibility its membership carries; and to study this impact, not with the viewpoint of local areas within the United States, but with the broad perspective of total domestic mineral production.

SUMMARY STATEMENT

Should S. 174 be enacted into law, the capacity of this Nation to maintain its productivity of mineral raw materials will be severely impaired. Such impairment has foreboding implications reaching deep into our economic structure that are contradictory to the demands on this Nation, as the bulwark of western civilization, to maintain maximum economic strength and maximum military might.

More than 64 million acres of Federally owned lands are specified in S. 174. Nearly 1,500,000 more acres could become subject to this act. The total of almost 66 million acres is larger than the combined area of nine States in the northeastern United States-Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. It is almost as much area as the State of Arizona, or the State of Colorado.

The large area embraced by S. 174 should be viewed in connection with all federally owned lands withdrawn by all governmental agencies. S. 174 specifies less than 60 percent of the more than 114 million acres withdrawn by all governmental agencies. This area is larger than California; it is about the same size as Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa combined; it is larger than Oregon and Washington together. These comparisons merely of area do not tell the true story of the detrimental effects of S. 174. A valid comparison must weigh both the potential for mineral production and the fact that mineral deposits are depleting assets of this Nation and nonrenewable resources. The lands subject to S. 174 have a potential for mineral production as high as any lands in this country, and furthermore, these 66 million. acres comprise a large percentage of the lands that have a high potential.

The prohibitions of S. 174 deny the right of mineral production from the lands that may be included in the National Wilderness Preservation System, and thereby, some 66 million acres having a high potential for mineral deposits would be sterilized as far as mineral production is concerned.

This undesirable circumstance is proposed by S. 174 in spite of the insignificant interference mineral production would have with the objective of wilderness preservation. The area withdrawn by governmental agencies is larger than the States of Idaho and Washington. Let the 164 active mining operations in these States occupy an area

that is only 128,500 acres-128,500 acres out of a total of 95,626,880 acres merely 0.13 percent. We will show that the objectives of wilderness preservation and mineral production both can be achieved. without serious damage to either.

An appropriate amendment to S. 174 would allow mineral production and wilderness preservation to stand side by side; it would make available to the Nation the benefits of both maximum supply of mineral raw material and wilderness. Such an amendment clearly is in the best interest of our national welfare, economic vitality, and military prowess. The society urges the Congress to consider favorably the principle contained in the amendment to S. 174 recommended in this testimony.

IMPAIRED CAPACITY FOR MINERAL PRODUCTIVITY

An impairment of capacity for mineral productivity is contrary to the demands of this Nation in the present struggle in which we are engaged. The adverse effects insidiously ramify throughout every segment of our national endeavors.

A maximum level of domestic mineral productivity is a counterbalance to price increases resulting from an increase in demand for mineral raw materials from foreign sources. The foreign supplier is kept in the position of competing in, rather than exploiting, the U.S. market. Domestic mineral productivity enhances the competitive position of U.S. industry; its denial would weaken the ability of U.S. industry to compete in international markets.

A corollary to larger demand on foreign sources of supply is greater insecurity with respect to a continuous adequate supply. The response to these circumstances is less impetus for our industry to modernize or expand existing facilities and to construct new facilities. Instead of adding attraction for domestic industrial development, incentive is added to the growing trend for new facilities to be erected at foreign sites of available mineral raw materials. The result is a loss. of a portion of our industry.

The loss of this portion of industry ramifies throughout every segment of our economic structure because no product or service can be provided without utilizing material of mineral origin in some form. Capital investments create job opportunities; jobs generate income or purchasing power; purchasing power sustains our standard of living and provides the tax revenues to support governments and public works. Denial of mineral production is denial of the opportunity for capital investments required for new mining endeavors, for the facilities to process the ore, the facilities to fabricate the material recovered from the ore, the facilities to distribute these products, to sell them, and for the facilities that provide goods and services to all these enterprises. The job opportunities created by these investments are lost to a growing labor force, purchasing power diminishes, the velocity of trade slows, and the standard of living slips backward from what it could be. Tax revenues for local, county, State, and Federal governments that would be, are not forthcoming. Public works programs are denied, roads are not built, sanitation facilities are not installed nor modernized, schools and hospitals that could be, will not be. All these effects of denied mineral production are contradictions to the economic best interest of this Nation.

The security of this Nation would be less firm. Supply lines that now spread across oceans and continents will become longer and wider. They will be more difficult to maintain, and indeed, under the emergency of war, perhaps impossible to maintain. The greater dependency on foreign sources of supply means any interference with supply will be felt more acutely. Interference with supply caused by political strife beyond our control would be a pinch that could become intolerable under the dire circumstances of war.

LANDS SUBJECT TO S. 174

S. 174 specifies the lands that are subject to inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System as follows:

SEC. (3) (b) (1) *** all areas within the national forests classified on the effective date of this act by the Secretary of Agriculture or the Chief of the Forest Service as wilderness, wild, primitive, or canoe: * * *.

SEC. (3) (c) (1) *** each portion of each park, monument, or other unit in the national park system which on the effective date of this act embraces a continuous area of 5,000 acres or more without roads.

SEC. 3. (d) *** such portions of the wildlife refuges and game ranges established prior to the effective date of the act under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior as he may recommend for such incorporation * *

The area within the national forests classified as wilderness, wild, primitive, or canoe as of December 31, 1960, are listed in Forest Service Document 5177, and the total acreage of all such areas is 14,661,416 acres. The acreage of each classification is:

Wilderness_.

Wild__
Primitive__
Canoe_-_-

Total_____

Acres

4,888, 173

979, 154 7,907, 416 886, 673

14, 661,416

The precise acreage embraced in continuous areas of 5,000 acres or more without roads within the national park system has not been available from any of our points of inquiry in the Government. An approximation of this acreage is the total area within the national park system, because only a small percentage of the total area is developed. As of June 30, 1961, the national park system comprised 22,350,092 acres. In addition, applications for withdrawal of 69,853 acres for expansion of the national park system were pending action on June 30, 1961. At this moment, proposals are offered to establish two additional units to the national park system in Utah and Nevada and these units would contain 453,000 acres.

The statistical appendix to the Annual Report of the Director, Bureau of Land Management, for 1961, lists a total of 27,228,555 acres in wildlife refuges and game ranges. In addition, 878,734 acres are under applications for withdrawal for which action was pending on June 30, 1961.

The sum of all these lands is 65,641,650 acres. This area is 8.5 percent of all the federally owned lands in the 50 States. But these lands are less than 60 percent of all the federally owned lands withdrawn by all governmental agencies.

FEDERAL LANDS WITHDRAWN BY GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES

The statistical appendix to the Annual Report of the Director, Bureau of Land Management, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1961, shows that as of June 30, 1960, withdrawals by all governmental agencies totaled 100,396,335 acres. Between June 30, 1960, and June 30, 1961, an additional 11,303,228 acres were withdrawn by Executive orders that include 5,000 acres or more. On June 30, 1961, nonmilitary applications for withdrawal pending action totaled 2,093,741 acres. Two new units proposed for the national park system in Utah and Nevada comprise 453,000 acres. The grand total is 114,246,304 acres, or 14.8 percent of all federally owned lands.

The gage of percentage of land area is not the real measure of importance. The potential these lands have for mineral production must also be weighed in our considerations.

THE POTENTIAL FOR MINERAL PRODUCTION

There is a hand-in-glove coincidence of wilderness environment and potential for mineral raw materials. This coincidence is not an idle claim, it is instead an irrefutable scientific axiom originating in the geologic events responsible for both. Neither is it chance; but it is the inescapable and inseparable construction from the design of nature.

Wilderness is wilderness because it is inaccessible and has escaped the advances of man. It is inaccesible because it is rugged terrain, so carved by erosion. It is rugged terrain because it is mountainous; and every student of geology knows it is mountainous because of the geologic events that formed the earth's crust and lifted large segments of it to be carved by erosion into mountain ranges. The same geologic events that lift segments of the earth's crust to form mountains also form mineral deposits. Some of the former mountainous regions have been eroded to flatlands and some remain as mountains. In either instance those regions are the hunting grounds where the feast or famine of mineral raw materials will be decided.

The map, figure 1, shows the distribution of mineral occurrences for 18 different materials in the 48 States. It has been compiled from metallogenic maps prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and data from the 11 Western States. Notice the predominance of mineral occurrences in the regions that are mountainous. Their pattern graphically depicts the Appalachians from Alabama to Maine, the eastern edge of the Rockies in New Mexico and Colorado, the Sierra Nevada in California, the Coast Range in Oregon and Washington, and other mountain ranges members of the committee will recognize. Note the predominance of these mineral occurrences in the 11 Western States, which of course, are the Mountain States. Because of this predominance and the fact that more than half of the lands withdrawn are in these States, we will henceforth refer just to them.

The map, figure 2, shows some of the lands subject to S. 174, some of the other federally owned lands withdrawn by all governmental agencies, and some of the areas where the rock formations that are apt to contain mineral deposits are so deeply buried by material devoid of mineralization that such deposits are beyond the reach of present methods of mineral prospecting. There are more than 11 million

acres of federally owned lands withdrawn by all governmental agencies not shown on the map, and there are additional lands withdrawn for which an acreage measurement could not be found by our search.

The lands subject to S. 174 are 32,400 acres. The precise location of some areas could not be learned and some areas are not plotted because they are too small to show at the scale of this map. A little more than 530,000 acres are not shown on the map in red.

Other federally owned lands withdrawn, pending action, and proposed for withdrawal by all governmental agencies are 31,500,000 acres. For the same reasons as above, only 20,700,000 acres are shown on the map in green.

The area in yellow on the map shows where the rocks likely to contain mineral deposits are so deeply buried that the geologic environment is not amenable to mineral prospecting. An estimated 20 percent of the total area of these States is included in this category. Twenty percent is equivalent to 150,700,000 acres. If this area is eliminated, the federally owned lands withdrawn by all agencies comprise 10.5 percent of the remaining area of the 11 Western States.

There are 353 locations where there has been mineral production within the lands subject to S. 174. The normal expectation is that the life of a mining operation will be extended by the discovery of additional ore in the area adjacent to the mine. S. 174 denies this privilege and opportunity. The history of mining is replete with examples of new discoveries adjacent to known mineralization, and each instance reiterates the potential for mineral raw materials that is demonstrated by existing mineralization.

As convincing as are these hundreds of locations of mineral production as a demonstration of the potential of the specific lands subject to S. 174, they do not measure that potential. Many tools and techniques of modern prospecting effective in the search for mineral deposits hidden below the surface were not used in the discovery of these deposits. The mines relate to mineralization exposed at the ground surface. The great potential for the hidden mineral deposits is not yet demonstrated.

The inaccessibility of the wilderness environment imposes a natural limitation on prospecting. The tools and techniques that are aids in the search for hidden mineral deposits obviously are used first in areas of high potential for mineral deposits that are most easily accessible. The helicopter has alleviated somewhat the difficulties of inaccessibility, and as a result, the wilderness areas have received an increasing amount of prospecting attention in recent years. Adequate mapping, both topographic and geologic, is a desirable prerequisite.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that for the lands situated in the 11 Western States and subject to S. 174, only 51.9 percent are covered by published topographic maps with a scale of 1 inch to 1 mile or larger, and merely 10 percent are covered by published geologic maps with that scale. Topographic mapping is now in progress on 13.6 percent of these lands and geologic mapping is in progress on 17.4 percent. In addition, topographic mapping programs planned for the next 3 years will cover 5.8 percent of these lands and geologic mapping programs will give coverage to 1.5 percent. These areas will receive more and more prospecting attention in the future.