Our country has a number of serious problems; two of which particularly bother me.

Money and mining. I think our money problems have been created in part by gthe fact that far too many in our governmenthave forgotten or don’t know where money comes. All wealth comes from the ground. It’s created when we harvest food and resources from the earth. This wealth is expanded when products are treated and manufactured into more useful products for mankind. Everyone else makes a living by distributing or selling these essential products. All others in our country make a living by providing a service for others or working for the government.

Just living on printed money is going to backfire on us one of these days as it will be declared worthless and our creditors will demand payment in gold or solid goods.

Thus, our basic industries are the foundation of our economy. Farming, ranching, fishing, timbering, oil recovery and mining are absolutely essential — and mineral recovery is the most important. Our country has all these minerals except one — tin — and we could provide our industries if we would let our miners work. We cannot manufacture one thing without using minerals, either in the product or the tools and machinery needed to make it.

The sad fact is that we are completely dependent on China for 25 minerals and partially for seven more. If they wanted they can bankrupt and shut down our country in a few weeks. The only reason it hasn’t happened already is that we are their biggest customer.

To add to all of this, Congress is thinking of rewriting the mining laws. These laws worked well for 130 years until Clinton and his secretary of interior started changing environmental regulations and stopped funding the Bureau of Mines. This group of explorers, mining engineers and metallurgists advised and directed government actions to develop and produce the essential metals that made it possible for America to win World War II and the Korean War. This created many jobs and a great deal of wealth for our country. Government agencies — Forest Service, BLM, DEQ etc. — have used environmental laws to regulate our mining and other industries out of business. When all agencies were created, Congress could not know all the problems they would encounter, so they gave them the right to write addenda to their laws and file them in federal records to give them force of laws. These regulations were supposed to follow the word and intent of previous law. Environmental control has taken over our country and environment concerns are only a front for a land control agency.

The mining laws, Multiple Use Act, Federal Land Management Policy Act and all mining laws are still in effect and mining land use is supreme over all other land uses. The Supreme Court confirms this but the Forest Service and other agencies completely ignore these laws and say their regulations must be followed. They use a small book of regulations that they have written to give us our permits to mine. They never meet the 90-day completion time and most permits don’t get approved for many years. All mining laws including the Federal Land Management Act and many Supreme Court decisions directly forbid agency actions. The Forest Service, BLM, etc. have very little expertise in mining and they have shut down or driven them overseas. We are buying timber from Canada, or minerals and other things from China, our oil from Russia and the Middle East. Let’s reestablish the Bureau of Mines and start producing our own resources an dmaking wealthy for our country.

Kenneth Anderson

professional mining geologist and engineer

Baker City