I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6335 

To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to permanently withdraw all Federal 

lands from location and entry for uranium mining, to provide for leasing 

of such lands under such Act for uranium mining, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 

Mr. HEINRICH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to permanently withdraw 

all Federal lands from location and entry for uranium 

mining, to provide for leasing of such lands under such 

Act for uranium mining, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Uranium Mining Mod5 ernization Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FEDERAL LANDS URANIUM LEASING. 

2 The Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) is 

3 amended by redesignating section 44 as section 45, and 

4 by inserting after section 43 the following new section: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 44. LEASING OF LANDS FOR URANIUM MINING. 

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 

7 ‘‘(1) WITHDRAWAL FROM ENTRY; LEASING RE8 QUIREMENT.—Effective upon the date of enactment 

9 of this section, all Federal lands are hereby perma10 nently withdrawn from location and entry under sec11 tion 2319 of the Revised Statutes (30 U.S.C. 22 et 

12 seq.) for uranium. After the end of the 2-year period 

13 beginning on such date of enactment, no uranium 

14 may be produced from Federal lands except pursu15 ant to a lease issued under this Act. 

16 ‘‘(2) LEASING.—The Secretary— 

17 ‘‘(A) may divide any lands subject to this 

18 Act that are not withdrawn from mineral leas19 ing and that are otherwise available for ura20 nium leasing under applicable law, including 

21 lands available under the terms of land use 

22 plans prepared by the Federal agency managing 

23 the land, into leasing tracts of such size as the 

24 Secretary finds appropriate and in the public 

25 interest; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) thereafter shall, in the Secretary’s 

2 discretion, upon the request of any qualified ap3 plicant or on the Secretary’s own motion, from 

4 time to time, offer such lands for uranium leas5 ing and award uranium leases thereon by com6 petitive bidding. 

7 ‘‘(b) FAIR MARKET VALUE REQUIRED.— 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—No bid for a uranium lease 

9 shall be accepted that is less than the fair market 

10 value, as determined by the Secretary, of the ura11 nium subject to the lease. 

12 ‘‘(2) PUBLIC COMMENT.—Prior to the Sec13 retary’s determination of the fair market value of 

14 the uranium subject to the lease, the Secretary shall 

15 give opportunity for and consideration to public com16 ments on the fair market value. 

17 ‘‘(3) DISCLOSURE NOT REQUIRED.—Nothing in 

18 this section shall be construed to require the Sec19 retary to make public the Secretary’s judgment as to 

20 the fair market value of the uranium to be leased, 

21 or the comments the Secretary receives thereon prior 

22 to the issuance of the lease. 

23 ‘‘(c) LANDS UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF OTHER

24 AGENCIES.—Leases covering lands the surface of which 


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1 is under the jurisdiction of any Federal agency other than 

2 the Department of the Interior may be issued only— 

3 ‘‘(1) upon consent of the head of the other Fed4 eral agency; and 

5 ‘‘(2) upon such conditions the head of such 

6 other Federal agency may prescribe with respect to 

7 the use and protection of the nonmineral interests in 

8 those lands. 

9 ‘‘(d) CONSIDERATION OF EFFECTS OF MINING.—Be10 fore issuing any uranium lease, the Secretary shall con11 sider effects that mining under the proposed lease might 

12 have on an impacted community or area, including im13 pacts on the environment, on agricultural, on cultural re14 sources, and other economic activities, and on public serv15 ices. 

16 ‘‘(e) NOTICE OF PROPOSED LEASE.—No lease sale 

17 shall be held for lands until after a notice of the proposed 

18 offering for lease has been given once a week for three 

19 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation 

20 in the county in which the lands are situated, or in elec21 tronic format, in accordance with regulations prescribed 

22 by the Secretary. 

23 ‘‘(f) AUCTION REQUIREMENTS.—All lands to be 

24 leased under this section shall be leased to the highest re25 sponsible qualified bidder— 


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1 ‘‘(1) under general regulations; 

2 ‘‘(2) in units of not more than 2,560 acres that 

3 are as nearly compact as possible; and 

4 ‘‘(3) by oral bidding. 

5 ‘‘(g) REQUIRED PAYMENTS.— 

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A lease under this section 

7 shall be conditioned upon the payment by the lessee 

8 of— 

9 ‘‘(A) a royalty at a rate of not less than 

10 12.5 percent in amount or value of the produc11 tion removed or sold under the lease; and 

12 ‘‘(B) a rental of— 

13 ‘‘(i) not less than $2.50 per acre per 

14 year for the first through fifth years of the 

15 lease; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) not less than $3 per acre per 

17 year for each year thereafter. 

18 ‘‘(2) USE OF REVENUES.—Amounts received as 

19 revenues under this subsection with respect to a 

20 lease may be used by the Secretary of the Interior, 

21 subject to the availability of appropriations, for 

22 cleaning up uranium mill tailings and reclaiming 

23 abandoned uranium mines on Federal lands in ac24 cordance with the priorities and eligibility restric25 tions, respectively, under subsections (c) and (d) of 


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1 section 411 of the Surface Mining Control and Rec2 lamation Act of 1977 (30 U.S.C. 1240a). 

3 ‘‘(h) LEASE TERM.—A lease under this section— 

4 ‘‘(1) shall be effective for a primary term of 10 

5 years; and 

6 ‘‘(2) shall continue in effect after such primary 

7 term for so long is as uranium is produced under 

8 the lease in paying quantities. 

9 ‘‘(i) EXPLORATION LICENSES.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may, under 

11 such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, 

12 issue to any person an exploration license. No per13 son may conduct uranium exploration for commer14 cial purposes on lands subject to this Act without 

15 such an exploration license. Each exploration license 

16 shall be for a term of not more than two years and 

17 shall be subject to a reasonable fee. An exploration 

18 license shall confer no right to a lease under this 

19 Act. The issuance of exploration licenses shall not 

20 preclude the Secretary from issuing uranium leases 

21 at such times and locations and to such persons as 

22 the Secretary deems appropriate. No exploration li23 cense may be issued for any land on which a ura24 nium lease has been issued. A separate exploration 

25 license shall be required for exploration in each 


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1 State. An application for an exploration license shall 

2 identify general areas and probable methods of ex3 ploration. Each exploration license shall be limited 

4 to specific geographic areas in each State as deter5 mined by the Secretary, and shall contain such rea6 sonable conditions as the Secretary may require, in7 cluding conditions to ensure the protection of the en8 vironment, and shall be subject to all applicable Fed9 eral, State, and local laws and regulations. Upon vio10 lation of any such conditions or laws the Secretary 

11 may revoke the exploration license. 

12 ‘‘(2) LIMITATIONS.—A licensee may not cause 

13 substantial disturbance to the natural land surface. 

14 A licensee may not remove any uranium for sale but 

15 may remove a reasonable amount of uranium from 

16 the lands subject to this Act included under the Sec17 retary’s license for analysis and study. A licensee 

18 must comply with all applicable rules and regula19 tions of the Federal agency having jurisdiction over 

20 the surface of the lands subject to this Act. Explo21 ration licenses covering lands the surface of which is 

22 under the jurisdiction of any Federal agency other 

23 than the Department of the Interior may be issued 

24 only upon such conditions as it may prescribe with 


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1 respect to the use and protection of the nonmineral 

2 interests in those lands. 

3 ‘‘(3) SHARING OF DATA.—The licensee shall 

4 furnish to the Secretary copies of all data (including 

5 geological, geophysical, and core drilling analyses) 

6 obtained during such exploration. The Secretary 

7 shall maintain the confidentiality of all data so ob8 tained until after the areas involved have been leased 

9 or until such time as the Secretary determines that 

10 making the data available to the public would not 

11 damage the competitive position of the licensee, 

12 whichever comes first. 

13 ‘‘(4) EXPLORATION WITHOUT A LICENSE.—Any 

14 person who willfully conducts uranium exploration 

15 for commercial purposes on lands subject to this Act 

16 without an exploration license issued under this sub17 section shall be subject to a fine of not more than 

18 $1,000 for each day of violation. All data collected 

19 by such person on any Federal lands as a result of 

20 such violation shall be made immediately available to 

21 the Secretary, who shall make the data available to 

22 the public as soon as it is practicable. No penalty 

23 under this subsection shall be assessed unless such 

24 person is given notice and opportunity for a hearing 

25 with respect to such violation. 


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1 ‘‘(j) CONVERSION OF MINING CLAIMS TO MINERAL

2 LEASES.— 

3 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The owner of any mining 

4 claim (in this subsection referred to as a ‘claimant’) 

5 located prior to the date of enactment of this section 

6 may, within two years after such date, apply to the 

7 Secretary of the Interior to convert the claim to a 

8 lease under this section. The Secretary shall issue a 

9 uranium lease under this section to the claimant 

10 upon a demonstration by the claimant, to the satis11 faction of the Secretary, within one year after the 

12 date of the application to the Secretary, that the 

13 claim was, as of such date of enactment, supported 

14 by the discovery of a valuable deposit of uranium on 

15 the claimed land. The holder of a lease issued upon 

16 conversion from a mining claim under this sub17 section shall be subject to all the requirements of 

18 this section governing uranium leases, except that 

19 the holder shall pay a royalty of 6.25 percent on the 

20 value of the uranium produced under the lease, until 

21 beginning ten years after the date the claim is con22 verted to a lease. 

23 ‘‘(2) OTHER CLAIMS EXTINGUISHED.—All min24 ing claims located for uranium on Federal lands 

25 whose claimant does not apply to the Secretary for 


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1 conversion to a lease, or whose claimant cannot 

2 make such a demonstration of discovery, shall be3 come null and void by operation of law three years 

4 after such date of enactment.’’. 

Æ 


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