Public Land Patented Since 1980 in The United States
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Since 1980, the hardrock mining industry has acquired the title to an estimated 194,673 acres of land in The United States previously owned by the public and rich in gold, silver, and other precious metals and minerals. Although a moratorium on new mining "patents" - conversion of public lands to private - has been in place since 1994, the government continues to grant pending requests. See who has gained title to lands since 1872, 1980, 1990, or 2000.
| Quick facts about patented lands in The United States since 1980 |
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• Acres of U.S. land, previously public, titled the mining industry since 1980: 194,673 • Companies and individuals granted patents, total: 487 • Dollars paid for each acre: $2.50 or $5 • Royalties paid to federal government from mines on patented public land: $0 |
EWG analysis of data compiled by the Bureau of Land Management. |
Top Mining Patent Purchasers in The United States Ranked by Acres Patented Since 1980
Companies have been consolidated to account for subsidiaries.
| Company/Individual | Headquarters | Number of Patents | Estimated Acreage | Patent Date(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Union Oil Company of California | Sugar Land, TX | 2 | 18,125 | 1986 |
| 2 | AMCOL International Corp | Arlington Heights, IL | 194 | 17,177 | 1980 to 2001 |
| 3 | John W Savage | Rifle, CO | 15 | 17,000 | 1986 to 1987 |
| 4 | Joseph L Fox (Trustee) | Lakewood, CO | 13 | 16,922 | 1986 |
| 5 | Energy Res Tech Land | Denver, CO | 6 | 11,012 | 1986 |
| 6 | Dresser Industries | Houston, TX | 14 | 10,869 | 1982 to 1989 |
| 7 | Foote Mineral Co | Silver Peak, NV | 2 | 10,793 | 1988 |
| 8 | Lorraine E Gregg | Rifle, CO | 8 | 10,752 | 1986 |
| 9 | Ertl Theo Trustee | Boulder, CO | 8 | 10,752 | 1986 |
| 10 | Donald M Lesher Trust | Rifle, CO | 8 | 10,752 | 1986 |
| See all patent purchasers in The United States since 1980 | |||||
State Ranking Ranked by Acres Patented Since 1980
| State | Number of Patents | Estimated Acreage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado | 67 | 84,631 | details |
| 2 | Nevada | 132 | 30,397 | details |
| 3 | Wyoming | 161 | 29,988 | details |
| 4 | Montana | 193 | 20,747 | details |
| 5 | California | 92 | 9,506 | details |
| 6 | Idaho | 57 | 7,936 | details |
| 7 | Arizona | 73 | 5,376 | details |
| 8 | Oregon | 26 | 2,040 | details |
| 9 | New Mexico | 23 | 1,915 | details |
| 10 | Utah | 14 | 1,050 | details |
| 11 | South Dakota | 6 | 674 | details |
| 12 | Washington | 7 | 413 | details |
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.