H.R. 1366: Mining Regulatory Clarity Act

The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act does two things at once. First, it lets a mining operator stake as many "mill sites" — patches of public land used for waste rock, tailings, and processing — as a federal-approved plan says it reasonably needs. Each site is capped at 5 acres, conveys no mineral rights, and can't be turned into private property through patenting.

The change is a direct answer to a 2022 federal appeals court decision involving the Rosemont Copper Mine in Arizona. That ruling held that companies couldn't dump waste on public land unless it held a valuable mineral deposit — a reading the industry says left major projects in legal limbo. This bill rewrites the underlying mining statute to remove that roadblock.

Second, the bill creates the Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund inside the Treasury. The claim maintenance fees collected on these new mill sites flow straight into it, and the Interior Department can spend that money on cleanup without waiting for Congress to pass a separate appropriation each year.

Supporters frame it as a self-funding fix: more domestic mining for minerals like copper and lithium, with the proceeds paying down a toxic backlog. Critics counter that easing waste-site rules invites more land disruption, and the bill names no dollar target — so how fast cleanup actually happens depends entirely on how much those fees bring in.