U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has been a vocal critic of the 1872 Mining Law on the grounds that the statute allows mining companies (even foreign ones) to buy government land for a mere US$5 per acre.
Babbitt was the personification of moral indignation earlier this year when a federal judge forced him to issue patents for the multi-million-ounce Goldstrike mine in Nevada. The interior secretary slammed the whole affair as “the biggest gold heist since the days of Butch Cassidy.”
But one fellow was intrigued to hear that an acre of land laden with gold could be had for the price of a cheap haircut. He promptly fired off a letter to Babbitt, along with a cheque in the amount of $5, for the purchase of one acre of land, preferably in his home state of Alaska. He wanted an open area on a lake with a view of the mountains, and requested that the claim should have gold, platinum or scandium.
Heck, with the ball game open to all, we’re thinking of doing the same. A piece of waterfront property in California would be nice, or maybe a ski hill in Colorado, or a forest retreat in Montana. And the claim should have a big gold deposit, although copper would be OK, or even a diamondiferous (gems only, please) kimberlite pipe.
We know, of course, that our cheque will be returned, along with an explanation from some bureaucrat that the system does not work exactly the way that Babbitt would have us believe.
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