Public Lands: Interior Should Recover the Costs of Recording Mining Claims
RCED-86-217
Published: Sep 10, 1986. Publicly Released: Sep 10, 1986.
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Highlights
GAO reviewed the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) cost-recovery analyses to determine whether it has been recovering the costs associated with recording mining claims.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of the Interior | Before increasing the mining claim recording fee, the Secretary of the Interior should direct that a new cost recovery analysis be undertaken for the BLM mining claim recording program. This analysis should use Interior's departmental manual as the criterion for determining all appropriate costs, both direct and indirect, that are incurred in recording mining claims and that can legally be recovered. If warranted, the fee should be adjusted, on the basis of Interior's analysis, to bring it into compliance with administration and departmental policy to recover Interior's costs of recording mining claims. |
Interior completed its cost recovery analysis, as GAO recommended. The analysis shows that the fee should be raised to $7.50 to cover current costs and recommends that it be raised to $10 per mining claim to allow for future program cost fluctuations resulting in an annual savings of between $268,000 and $552,000.
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Topics
Cost analysisFeesGovernment collectionsMineral rightsMiningRange managementMiningPublic landsCost recoveryOverhead costs