4 ms·

Why is the lease information a matter of public record?

• defrost 3y ago
  It's regulation in a great many countries about the globe that mining lease data is recorded and made available to "the public", eg: in the US this is largely handled by the BLM: https://www.doi.gov/ocl/blm-lands-leasing https://www.doi.gov/ocl/blm-lands-leasing As to the existantial nature of your question, you might try The Evolution of Resource Property Rights by Anthony Scott, perhaps look back to Roman Doctrine and how their laws carried forward in Western civilisation, look to Chinese history, etc. There's a brief narrow overview of some of that here: https://www.pheasantenergy.com/mineral-rights-history/ https://www.pheasantenergy.com/mineral-rights-history/ and a whole lot has been written about "The Commons", etc.
  • rfrey 3y ago
    So is it a problem that corporate secrecy allows people to do an end-run around the intent of these regulations?
    • defrost 3y ago
      ? The intent of the regulations is to record who is searching for what and where (ie. can be contacted and are responsible for property damage, spills, destruction, etc) to have one prospecter per parcel, etc. Can you point out a country where it is explicit that the intent is that (say) Rio Tinto has to directly list head office on every lease in the country and cannot spin off a copper division, an iron subgroup, a rare earth exploration subsidiary, etc?