Mining Claims Under the General Mining Laws; Surface Management

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the reopening of the comment period on our surface management proposed rule (43 CFR part 3809) and the associated draft environmental impact statement (EIS). We are taking this action to carry out a provision of a recently enacted law requiring us to reopen the comment period on the proposed rule. This action enables the public and other interested parties to comment on the proposed rule and the draft EIS following publication of a report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on hardrock mining on Federal lands. We are supplementing the proposed rule with recommendations from the NAS study and raising some related topics. And, we are responding to comments on our estimate of burden hours associated with the proposed rule.