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I. Summary of DMEA applications and contracts, Mar. 31, 1964

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No further commitment to repay Gov't. part. spent lcss, if any, written off.

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Mr. SAYLOR. Now, I notice that the last several witnesses have referred to the report of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission in regard to the report we had covering mineral potential in the 30 national forest and wilderness and primitive areas, which report says that the Bureau of Mines says that 18 were potentially high in mineral content and 12 were medium or low.

Now, do you think if you are going to rely on this report that we should treat all 30 in the same manner?

Mr. CANNON. Well, I think part of the difficulty is that the Bureau of Mines actually is only saying that the discovery potential is high, but another part of the problem is that there are still vast areas which have not been subjected to topographical mapping or geological mapping; so, we actually do not know very much about many of these areas.

I think your bill has the provision calling for continuing survey by the Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Mines, and we think that is a very desirable provision.

Mr. SAYLOR. You have anticipated the next question. If this is true, then why do you not support the provision that I put in 9070 calling for a continued study to be made by the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines?

Mr. CANNON. Well, we are all for that. We would like to advocate continued applicability of the mineral and mining leasing laws. Mr. SAYLOR. In other words, what you are wanting is the moon with a ring around it.

Mr. CANNON. No, we just want the earth.

Mr. SAYLOR. Well, as far as the wilderness system is concerned, you want more than the earth. You want everything that is on it, as well as everything that is in it. Somewhere along the line, you are going to have to draw a line.

Mr. CANNON. Yes, I would say that is an exaggeration of our provision, but presently, the mining and mineral leasing laws do apply to wilderness areas that have been established administratively. I have here a release dated April 24 establishing the High Sierra Primitive Area as a wilderness area, and in the very last phase it says, “And prospecting for valuable minerals would continue."

We think this has been a long-established national policy, and we do not think a case has been made to change radically this national policy in regard to these wilderness areas. In fact, we think the evidence is mounting every day that it should remain the same.

Mr. SAYLOR. Well, of course, there is evidence, also, Mr. Cannon, pointing on the other side; that evidence is that the Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce keeps reporting to us daily that the population of this country keeps growing and growing, that the demand for recreation, that the demands for open space are becoming more and more demanding every day, and what this committee is trying to do is to try to find a solution to those problems. One of the ways you are going to find a solution is just to take a certain area of this country and set it aside and say, "That is wilderness that is to be set aside and used as wilderness."

Mr. CANNON. Well, we certainly appreciate the diligent study which this committee has been giving to these problems rising out of the expanding population. We would like to comment that most of the increase in the population is taking place in the highly urbanized, metropolitan areas, and that one of the big needs is for recreation areas that are equally accessible from these metropolitan areas. We feel, also, that this increased population and demand for recreational opportunities indicates a need, perhaps, for an increase in mass recreation facilities, and we feel that the committee should take this into consideration in weighing the expense of wilderness legislation, since mass recreation-in the accepted sense of it-would not be possible in wilderness areas, because recreational facilities could not be constructed in them.

Mr. SAYLOR. This committee is taking cognizance of that fact, and we have held hearings recently to establish another seashore area in New York, Fire Island. We have on the books very shortly hearings for setting up a recreation area in the Tocks Island area up in Dela

ware, and in all probability before the session is over, we will have a third area here in the Midwest or Far West set up for trying to take care of the problem that you have just presented. So it is rather amusing to say that the population is increasing in the metropolitan centers. One of the necessary ingredients to have an increase in population is people. You cannot have that increase without people.

Mr. CANNON. Well, I think there has been a definite trend in the percentages as between rural and urban population.

Mr. SAYLOR. There has been a definite trend away from the farm and into the metropolitan areas.

Thank you, Mr. Cannon. I will look forward with interest to the information that you will furnish us from the Office of Minerals Exploration, the 1962, 1963 figures.

Mr. CANNON. Thank you.

Mr. BARING. I ask that there be placed in the record an excerpt from the report on wilderness and recreation, ORRRC study report No. 3, section 6, on minerals, from page 109 through and including 116. Hearing no objection, it is so ordered.

(The material follows:)

EXCERPT FROM ORRRC STUDY REPORT 3, "WILDERNESS AND RECREATION—A REPORT ON RESOURCES, VALUES, AND PROBLEMS"

1 SECTION 6-MINERALS

Records of past mining activities and production collected for over 12 million acres of national forest wilderness and primitive areas (over 100,000 acres in size) reflect an unceasing optimism of prospectors as well as vigorous surface mineral exploration efforts for many years. Production records assembled for 32 national forest wilderness reserves (including 6 areas under 100,000 acres but contiguous to areas over 100,000 acres) by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, show that a few mines in five of the areas have been significant producers of minerals during some period in the past 60 years (see table 24). Yet, information supplied by the U.S. Forest Service in 1960 shows there are 225 mining patents covering 10,889 acres, and 7,479 mining claims covering 139,870 acres, within these areas (see table 23). Present mineral laws apparently provide very attractive incentives to locators of any trace of mineral deposit.

Production of important mineral quantities have occurred in the following areas for minerals indicated:

High Sierra Primitive Area (near eastern boundary): Tungsten primarily, and also copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, and molybdenum.

Idaho Primitive Area: Tungsten and mercury primarily, and also gold, silver, copper, and lead.

San Juan Primitive Area: Silver.

Gila Wilderness Area: Fluorspar.

Mazatazal Wilderness Area: Mercury.

Despite the few mining activities that have produced significant quantities of minerals from these reserved areas in the past, mineral authorities express optimism about future potentials. Offices of the U.S. Bureau of Mines in letters to the Wildland Research Center have made the following comments:

"In this period of depressed metal prices and markets, only the most efficient mines can be operated profitably. Many deposits within wilderness areas that presently are uneconomic, would be minable with higher prices and greater demand.

"It should be understood that, in general, prospecting has been inadequate in the past and was chiefly for copper, lead, gold, and silver. It was largely done prior to the metal requirements of the past two wars and the present space age. Prospecting has been almost wholly without benefit of geochemistry, geophysics, core drilling, and advanced geologic guidance.

1 Mineral production and potential for National Park Service areas not available.

"Currently prospecting and exploration is at an alltime low. The logistics of exploration are weighted against mineral discovery by the limitations on mechanized transport, power equipment, use of explosives, and the inability of a prospector to acquire title or exploit a deposit even though found.

"Future 'breakthroughs' in metallurgy will create demand not now recognized; nor can we predict what elements may be in future demand. Similarly, advances in exploration and exploration techniques, and increasing demand will make commercial resources out of mineralized formations that would now be considered worthless, were they known."

The Bureau of Mines in reviewing mineral potential of 30 national forest wilderness and privitive areas (see table 23), indicates that discovery potential for metalliferous minerals is high in 18 areas, and medium or low in the other 12. Potential for nonmetalliferous minerals discovery is listed as high in 9 areas, medium or low in the other 21; while mineral fuel discovery potential is high for 1 area and mostly low for all other areas.

The question of mineral potential and possible development in relation to local communities or to wilderness values has not been assessed in any detailed way in this study. Mining developments are so variable and capricious in terms of supporting a local community on any sort of permanent basis that no generalization can be made. Certainly any long-term mining venture or processing plant must be a large-scale operation and often dependent upon several sources of mineral supply. At present there are no communities dependent on ore or mineral fuel supplies from reserved wilderness areas, and any restraint placed upon mining will affect future, not current, local economies. In all the national forest wilderness and primitive areas and National Park Service areas reviewed by the Wildland Research Center there were only two producing mines in 1960-a uranium operation on private land in Grand Canyon National Park, and a tungsten, gold, and silver operation on the east edge of the High Sierra Primitive Area.

In terms of national economy and welfare, evaluation of mineral deposits in wilderness areas must include availability and importation of high-grade foreign ores and fuels in relation to development and production costs of minerals in wilderness areas, as well as U.S. price-demand factors including subsidies. Further, the importance of particular minerals (available in quantity in wilderness areas) to national welfare, including defense needs, should be compared with the value of Federal wilderness areas. If mineral location and production were limited to those situations where a particular mineral deposit development was clearly essential to national welfare, it is doubtful whether wilderness lands would be extensively affected, especially if provisions were possible to limit mining-road use to mining activities and to close such roads to motor travel after production had ceased.

The approximately 11,000 mining claims and patents in national forest wilderness and primitive areas (over 100,000 acres) covering over 150,000 acres, plus a number of mineral patents in National Park Service areas, are a serious problem to wilderness preservation. It has been well established that a great many

of these claims and patents were obtained on very slim evidence of mineral "showing," or outright fraudulence. The rights of development and road access, even without intent to fully develop mineral deposits, to these lands constantly threaten the maintenance of a number of wilderness areas. Legislation restricting development and access only to legitimate deposits and mining activities appears to be the most effective, practical, and fair solution to this problem.

TABLE 23.-Information on mining, mining claims and patents, and mineral potential for U.S. Forest Service wilderness, primitive and canoe areas (over 100,000 acres), 1960

[Of all areas listed only 1 contains an active producing mine. This is near the east boundary of High Sierra Primitive Area]

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