Who owns the west?

AMCOL International Corp

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AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries are a few of 92,125 beneficiaries of a 131-year-old federal mining law that gives away precious metals, minerals, and even the title to the land itself for less than $10 an acre. AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries own the minerals under an estimated 41,050 acres of claimed land, have gained title to an estimated 21,681 acres of lands previously owned by the public, and have submitted mining plans and notices that encompass 4,846 acres of BLM-managed land, not including the acreages of mines they may operate on Forest Service land. giving AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries more total land holdings (claims and patents) than over 99.5% of all other mining interests.

Headquarters

1500 West Shure Drive
Arlington Heights, IL 60004

Subsidiaries Include

American Colloid Co (100%)

Information on subsidiaries and parent companies shown here represents our best estimate of corporate structure at the time of this website release, and are drawn from various publicly available sources. Please report any noted omissions and errors to EWG with a credible source or citation. Thank you.

Overview of Ownership

Statistics on this page include the ownership of subsidiaries. This company does not have any features in their own name.

 ClaimsPatentsMining Plans & Notices
Number1,535 245 26
Estimated Acreage41,050 21,681 4,846
States
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11111111
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Source: EWG analysis of US BLM data.

Claims

Like all U.S. claimholders, AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries acquired ownership of precious metals and minerals on U.S. public land for about $2 per acre, and maintains possession of the claim with a small per-acre fee, typically $5 each year. AMCOL International Corp pays no royalties to the federal government for metals and minerals mined from this land.

For AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries:

Claims by State.

StateNumber of ClaimsEstimated AcreageDate(s)
Wyoming 1,21930,5001928 - 2003
Montana 1106,1201982 - 1999
Nevada 1613,2901973 - 1996
South Dakota 451,1401920 - 1985
U.S. Total 1,53541,0501920 - 2003

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Source: EWG analysis of US BLM data.


Patents

AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries are some of the 63,768 beneficiaries of a long-standing federal subsidy called "patenting" that allows mining interests to purchase public land for no more than $5 an acre. Since acquiring title to the land, AMCOL International Corp may have mined it, sold it, leased it, or passed it on to heirs or other corporate interests. Regardless of who owns the property now, the U.S. public has lost all rights- metals, minerals, and title - on land that was once public park or forest.

For AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries:

Patents by State.

StateNumber of PatentsEstimated AcreageDate(s)
Wyoming 10711,7961950 - 2001
Montana 1258,9611978 - 1998
South Dakota 54401983
Nevada 74321960 - 1967
Oregon 1521957
U.S. Total 24521,6811950 - 2001

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Source: EWG analysis of US BLM data.


Mining Plans & Notices on BLM Land

AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries are some of the 3,323 mine operators on U.S. BLM lands with mining plans and notices listed as currently active in government records, operating under laws that allow mining interests to extract and sell precious metals and minerals previously held by the public. AMCOL International Corp may also operate mines on Forest Service lands, which are not contained in the LR2000 database that is the backbone of this website. Because the government often fails to promptly close out records for mines no longer active, active mining may be completed for some of the operations represented by plans and notices in this website. But regardless of the status of mining operations on a particular site, filings of plans and notices are indicative of mining on the property - whether past, present, or planned. Mining operations led by AMCOL International Corp may well have left behind permanent pollution. In 2001 mines generated 45 percent of all pollution in EPA's Toxic Release Reporting system while accounting for just 0.36 percent of all industrial facilities.

For AMCOL International Corp and its subsidiaries:

Plans and Notices on BLM land by State.

StateNumber of Plans and Notices on BLM landEstimated AcreageDate(s)
Wyoming 113,3011994 - 2003
Montana 71,3661981 - 2002
South Dakota 21751981 - 2002
Nevada 531985 - 1996
Oregon 111999
U.S. Total 264,8461981 - 2003

Find these features on the map.

Source: EWG analysis of US BLM data.



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.