Conservation and Reform: Tiffany's Stance on Hardrock Mining in the American West

In the United States, Tiffany & Co. is working to support reform of the General Mining Law of 1872 and to pass legislation to assist in cleaning up abandoned hardrock mines.

They agree with many in the environmental community, the mining industry and Congress that an overhaul of federal mining law is long overdue. Tiffany also understands that achieving mining law reform will require hard work, negotiation, compromise and creativity in a public, transparent process.

They believe that mining on our public lands should be a privilege and must be carefully measured against alternative uses, including recreation and conservation. Most importantly, they recognize that some public lands are simply not suitable for mining, and that their value for recreation and conservation is far greater than their value as a source of materials.

If reforms are to succeed, they believe taxpayers must be fairly compensated for minerals taken from public lands, that protection of the environment must be enhanced and that business certainty for companies and communities dependent on mining must be improved.

Tiffany & Co. has publicly—and actively—opposed inappropriate mine development on environmentally and culturally sensitive lands. The toxic legacy of abandoned mines in the  American West is also a matter of great concern to Tiffany. Under current law, government entities, nonprofits, private parties and other organizations may incur liability for voluntarily cleaning up mine-related pollution they did not cause. Tiffany supports protection of these "Good Samaritans" to encourage efforts to effectively deal with these mines and to establish a permanent source of funding for them.