Department of the Interior July 27, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of the Interior is establishing and seeking nominations for the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI) Advisory Committee. The Committee is being established to advise the Department on the implementation the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which requires governments to publicly disclose their revenues from oil, gas, and mining assets and for companies to make parallel disclosures regarding payments. The Committee will serve as the initial Multi-Stakeholder Group and its duties will include consideration and fulfillment of the tasks required to achieve candidate and compliant status in the EITI.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is issuing this rule to amend regulations on locating, recording, and maintaining mining claims or sites. In this rule, the BLM amends its regulations to respond to a recent law that changes the way the maintenance fee is calculated for unpatented placer mining claims. The law specifies that the holder of an unpatented placer mining claim must pay the initial and annual maintenance fee for each 20 acres or portion thereof contained in the claim; and reiterates that an initial maintenance fee payment is due at the time of recording the claim with the BLM and that the annual maintenance fee is due on or before September 1 of each year.