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Mining claims in Wyoming

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The hardrock mining industry owns gold, silver, and other precious metals and minerals beneath an estimated 353,499 acres of U.S. public land in Wyoming, resources worth millions of dollars a year, acquired for as little as $0.84 per acre and held in perpetuity for a yearly rental fee as low as $0.62 an acre. Under a 132-year-old law originally intended to spur development of the West, an industry dominated by a handful of multinational corporations pays no federal royalties, and leaves behind a landscape of dramatically diminished value, scarred with tunnels, pits, and toxic waste piles.

Quick facts about mining claims in Wyoming

• Total number of claim-holders: 1,025

• Acres of public land claimed by the mining industry, estimated: 353,499 (30% of Yellowstone National Park)

• Dollars paid for each acre: as little as $0.84, and as little as $0.62 yearly rental fee

• Reimbursement to the federal government for gold, silver and other precious metals taken from public land: $0

• Companies owning minerals on at least 10,000 public acres: 18

• Percentage of claims held by foreign companies: 24%

• Land area ever claimed by the mining industry nationally, estimated: 79 million acres (the size of New Mexico)

EWG analysis of data compiled by the Bureau of Land Management.


Top Mining Claim Owners in Wyoming Ranked by Acres Claimed

Companies have been consolidated to account for subsidiaries. View this table without consolidation.

 Company/IndividualHeadquartersNumber of ClaimsAcreage ClaimedDate(s) Filed
1 Cameco Corp World HQ in Canada 3,150 64,985 1953 to 2002
2 Wyo Ben Inc Billings, MT 744 32,795 1938 to 2003
3 AMCOL International Corp Arlington Heights, IL 1,219 30,500 1928 to 2003
4 1st Bk Billings, MT 546 27,240 1938 to 1983
5 Trend Mining Co Coeur D'alene, ID 804 16,611 1983 to 2000
6 Encampment Resources LLC Jelm, WY 742 15,330 1997 to 2002
7 Rio Tinto Limited World HQ in Australia 988 14,759 1954 to 1995
8 Rock Springs Mnrl Prcsg Powder River, WY 367 14,720 2001 to 2003
9 R Anthony Vincent Coral Springs, FL 66 10,560 2001
10 Dinah Vincent Coral Springs, FL 66 10,560 2001
See all claim holders in Wyoming

Some of the claimants in this table may be in partnership with other individuals or companies with a claim to the same land.

 

Counties in Wyoming Ranked by Acres Claimed

 CountyNumber of ClaimsEstimated Acreage  
1 Big Horn County 2,302 67,071 details map
2 Fremont County 1,617 51,893 details map
3 Converse County 1,986 41,031 details map
4 Albany County 1,713 38,281 details map
5 Natrona County 909 36,932 details map
6 Carbon County 952 21,821 details map
7 Crook County 543 20,430 details map
8 Campbell County 960 19,834 details map
9 Washakie County 338 13,646 details map
10 Sweetwater County 594 10,723 details map
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Examples of Mines in Wyoming

Name of MineLocation of MineMine StatusMetal MinedOwner or Parent Company of Owner
Smith Ranch - HighlandConverse County, WYOpenUraniumPower Resouces Inc.

Source: EWG analysis.

 

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Source: EWG analysis of Bureau of Land Management's Land and Mineral Records 2000 (LR2000) data system. For claims, acreages are estimated based on maximum allowable size of claims. For patents, acreages are taken directly from the LR2000 database where available, and are estimated based on maximum allowable size of claim that preceded the patent where acreages are not noted in LR2000. All notices are assumed to be five acres in size, and the size of plans are calculated directly as the size of the land represented by the legal land description in the LR2000 database. The acreages we estimate through these methods would tend to overestimate the actual amount. We welcome corrections here, and would welcome a federal data management system that included the acreages involved in these important federal land transactions.