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During the 1990's there was a case in which a Canadian company acqired the rights to mine billions of dollars of gold in the United States with the payment of only a few thousand dollars.

Sounds kind fishy. Was there not a competitive auction?

During the 1990's there was a case in which a Canadian company acqired the rights to mine billions of dollars of gold in the United States with the payment of only a few thousand dollars.

Sounds kind fishy. Was there not a competitive auction?

As I understand it, under certain conditions, the 1872 Mining Act allows one to buy land from the government if one has located valuable minerals. The prices charged are specified in the act at $2.50 to $5 per acre. (Maybe this was somewhat reasonable in 1872.) There is no fee for the minerals extracted and there is no competitive bidding required. Apparently more recent laws sometimes cause the land to revert to the government after the minerals have been extracted, but the prices have remained unchanged. (I'm not sure what will happen with the land ownership in this case but it sounds like a sale rather than a lease.)

Here's an article about the case I referred to:

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=349

Sorry, I'm kind of busy so that's the best info I can research for now.