Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

ASSOCIATON Mr. Murray. Senator McClure, my name is Steven R. Murray. I'm a registered professional geologist for the State of Idaho, and employed by Coeur d’Alene Mines, Inc., and speaking on behalf of Northwest Mines Association as a member of the Public Lands Committee. I would like to take this time to thank you for these hearings and state a couple comments which are not verbatim from my written testimony. There have been a few statements made to me in the last few years concerning the wilderness issue about why the mining industry is now interested in lands which are currently roadless. Just as the Nation as a whole has benefited from the advances in technolo225 gy, so has the mining industry. We are no longer restricted to vehicular access to some of these areas where we use the helicopters. We have portable equipment which we can now hold by hand. Two weeks ago we tested a new assaying piece of equipment which directly read assays directly off the rock. We are not restricted to the past uses of the land which were environmentally compatible. These lands that we are looking at today—and you'll notice in the bibliography of my statement there are three articles which I wish would be entered into the record which assess the mineral potential of these lands—we are now looking at these lands with the hope of assessing that mineral potential on the basis of improved technology. We are no longer looking at people who are walking across the hills with the old burro and gold pan, but we're talking about people who are using modern technology to assess the mineral potential of the land. If we do not allow these lands to be assessed properly, as was mandated by Congress in 1964, and that mandate has been consistently ignored, we are tying up resources which are vital to the Nation. We are not talking about dollars and cents, we are not talking about logs, we are not talking about rocks, we are talking about the United States of America and its future. We are not talking about profit and loss figures for logging companies or mining companies, we are talking about the future of our country. Thank you.