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1 30 U.S.C. §§ 21-54 (1976). The statute opens "all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States . . . to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase." Id. § 22. Subsequent statutes have excluded some important minerals from the General Mining Law's coverage. The Mineral Lands Leasing Act of 1920, id. §§ 181-287, created a different statutory scheme for coal, gas, oil shale, phosphate, sulphur (in Louisiana and New Mexico), potassium, sodium, native asphalt, solid and semisolid bitumen, and bituminous rock (such as tar sands). Id. § 181. The Common Varieties Act of 1955, id. §§ 601-615, excluded common varieties of sand, stone, gravel, and some other construction materials from General Mining Law coverage. Id. § 611. The General Mining Law still governs prospecting for gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, nickel, molybdenum, uranium, and other hard rock minerals. Id. §§ 23, 35. 2 The title of the General Mining Law of 1872 was "An act to promote the Development of the Mining Resources of the United States." Act of May 10, 1872, ch. 152, 17 Stat. 91, 91. 3 McBroom, Mineral Exploration and Recreation Development on National Resource Lands-Compatible or Incompatible?, 24 SYRACUSE L. REV. 1057, 1060 (1972). 4 Unappropriated public lands are federal lands that have not been withdrawn from mineral exploration. In 1970, the Public Land Law Review Commission estimated total federal land holdings to be 755.4 million acres, or approximately one-third of the nation's lands. Of that, approximately 87%, or 657.3 million acres, was accessible to miners. PUBLIC LAND LAW REVIEW COMMISSION, ONE THIRD OF THE NATION'S LAND 20-22 (1970). Mining laws do not apply to lands used by the Department of Defense, id. at 20, or in national parks or monuments, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1901-1912 (1976 & Supp. IV 1980). Mining is permitted in national forests, see Friends of the Earth v. Butz, 406 F. Supp 742 (D. Mont. 1975), and on lands controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, PUBLIC LAND LAW REVIEW COMMISSION, supra, at 20-21. Withdrawal of public lands from mining may be accomplished in any of three ways: by an act of Congress, by an executive officer pursuant to specific congressional delegations, or by an executive officer based on an asserted inherent power. Bennethum & Lee, Is Our Account Overdrawn?, 61 MINING CONG. J. 33, 33 (1975). See, e.g., Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, § 204, 43 U.S.C. § 1714 (1976) (authorizing the Secretary of Interior to withdraw certain federal land from settlement, location, or entry). How much public land has been closed to mining activity is a matter of dispute: representatives of the mining industry estimate about 65% of federal land has been withdrawn from mining; environmentalists estimate only 10-15% has been withdrawn. Lee & Bennethum, Is Our Account Overdrawn? A Reassessment, 6 MATERIALS & Soc'Y 15, 17 (1982). In recent years, representatives of the mining industry have argued that too high a percentage of the nation's land is now closed to mining. Marsh & Sherwood, Metamorphosis in Mining

The General Mining Law and the Doctrine of Pedis Possessio: The Case for Congressional Action