March/April 2009

Gold 101: Hard Rock and Death Metal

Some nuggets about America’s dirtiest industry.

Photo used under <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tator82/451998879/" target="_blank">Creative Commons license</a>.

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Share of revenues that hard rock mining companies pay for operating on public land: 0%

Estimated value of minerals mined from public lands since 1872: $408 billion

Amount the federal government would collect annually if mining companies paid royalties: $100 to $200 million

Minimum number of times legislation to require royalties or leasing fees has been beaten back in Congress: 14

Amount mining companies save annually due to a tax break on income from public lands: $327 million

Amount a Canadian firm paid for 1,950 acres of public land in Nevada in 1994: $9,765

Estimated worth of the gold on that land: $10 billion

Number of new claims staked on public lands in the West since 2003: 206,688

Number that are within 5 miles of a major city: 16,282

Number that are within 5 miles of a national park: 2,901

Portion of all toxic waste released in the US in 2006 that came from mines: 1/3

Factor by which metal mines emit more mercury than all other industries combined: 9

Amount of waste produced by mining the gold for a single wedding band: 20 tons

Estimated cost of cleaning up the 500,000 abandoned mines in the US: at least $32 billion

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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