Federal Land Management

Limited Action Taken To Reclaim Hardrock Mine Sites Gao ID: RCED-88-21 October 21, 1987

In response to a congressional request, GAO revisited 30 unreclaimed mine sites that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) believed to be abandoned without reclamation, to assess the status of reclamation efforts at the sites.

GAO found that: (1) 6 of the 30 sites have been completely reclaimed, and 4 have been partially reclaimed; (2) mining resumed on 5 of the sites, delaying the necessity for reclamation; (3) BLM reclaimed 1 site, at a cost of $4,000; (4) the 19 remaining inactive mine sites will cost an estimated $87,400 to reclaim; (5) BLM took no action on 15 of the 19 inactive sites after the initial GAO report; and (6) BLM does not believe that it is necessary to require surety bonds for all mining operations.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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