BLM Announces Hardrock Sustainable Development Mineral Awards Winners

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Kathleen Clarke today announced the winners of the 2005 Reclamation and Sustainable Mineral Development Awards. The awards recognize the efforts that have been made in implementing the principles of sustainable development, a concept adopted by the United States and 192 other countries, to balance environmental, economic, and social considerations in planning for mining operations.

The 2005 Hardrock Mineral Environmental Award winner is the Kennecott Ridgeway Mine in Fairfield County, South Carolina. The 2005 Hardrock Community Outreach and Economic Security Award winners are Molycorp Inc.’s Questa Molybdenum Mine in Questa, New Mexico, and the Newmont Mining Corporation’s Eastern Nevada Operations on the Carlin Trend in Nevada.

A third award, new for 2005, is the Small Operator Award. The 2005 Small Operator Award winner is Diamond Jim Olmstead, lease holder and operator of mining claims on Gold Creek in Chandalar quadrangle, Alaska. This operation is on mining claims located on lands administered by the BLM.

“All four award winners illustrate the BLM's concept of sustainable development — maintaining current standards of living while providing for future needs,” BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said. “Thanks to their efforts, the public lands will continue to provide a range of resources for present and future generations,” she added.

Director Clarke presented the awards to the winners this evening in Washington, D.C., at a joint BLM and Office of Surface Mining awards dinner hosted by the National Mining Association.

First offered in 2003, the BLM awards are similar to existing Department of Interior awards for excellence in coal mining reclamation. The hardrock mining awards enable the Department of Interior to recognize the industrial and metallic minerals industry as well as sand and gravel operators. There are three categories of award this year. The first, the Hardrock Mineral Environmental Award, highlights the component of sustainable development that relates to environmental stewardship. The award acknowledges operators with exceptional track records of meeting or exceeding Federal, State, or local reclamation requirements. The second award, Hardrock Mineral for Community Outreach and Economic Security Award highlights the component of sustainable development that relates to concern shown for community responsibilities and the economic benefits of mineral development, with an emphasis on successful coordination with local and regional stakeholders. The new category this year, the Small Operator Award, recognizes achievements in environmental stewardship of operators with less than fifteen employees. Like the Hardrock Mineral Environmental Award, this award recognizes operators who have demonstrated continuous or repeated efforts to successfully meet or exceed Federal, State or local reclamation requirements.

Nominations for this year’s hardrock mining awards were first screened by BLM State Office officials, who forwarded the applications to BLM Headquarters for final judging. A panel of judges that included people from outside the BLM completed the judging. Detailed information on the winners is attached (21KB PDF) .

The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages more land—261 million surface acres—than any other Federal agency. Most of this public land is located in 12 Western States, including Alaska. The Bureau, with a budget of about $1.9 billion, also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM’s multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on the public lands.

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