Stuart Butzier Appointed to Two-Year Term Chairing the International Bar Association’s Mining Law Committee
Stuart Butzier has accepted a two-year appointment to serve as Co-Chair of the International Bar Association’s Mining Law Committee, along with Chilean mining lawyer Pablo Mir. The Mining…
Book Review: The Law and Governance of Mining and Minerals: A Global Perspective
Stuart R Butzier Modrall Sperling, Santa Fe sbutzier@modrall.com Darrell W Podowski Cassels Brock & Blackwell, Vancouver dpodowski@cassels.com Bastida, Ana Elizabeth, The Law and Governance of Mining and…
Three Modrall Sperling Shareholders Honored by Who’s Who Legal: Mining
Stuart Butzier, Lynn Slade and Walter Stern have been listed as Global Leaders by Who’s Who Legal: Mining, a publication which recognizes the top mining lawyers in the world. Practitioners featured in this prestigious publication are nominated by their peers in the…
Recent Biden Administration Orders Affecting the Energy Industry
In his first week in office, President Biden and administration officials have issued various Executive Orders, memoranda and other agency directives reversing previous Trump Administration policies and/or establishing new policies for federal agencies, which some have characterized as a fossil fuel freeze….
Water Quality Control Commission Unanimously Approves Mine’s Proposed Regulatory Amendments to Surface Water Standards
On October 8, 2019, following a public hearing, the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) unanimously approved Peabody Natural Resources Company’s (Peabody) proposed amendments to the WQCC’s regulations governing standards for interstate and intrastate surface waters codified at N.M. Code R….
Minerals for New Technologies and Low Carbon Economies
Co-Authored by Stuart Butzier – Modrall Sperling and Casper Herler – Borenius Attorneys, Helsinki, Finland Originally printed in the Newsletter of the International Bar Association’s Mining Law Committee…
Court Affirms Contested Mine Permit Revision Changing Underground Uranium Mine from Standby to Active Status
In an appeal on the record taken by environmental groups pursuant to Rule 1-074 NMRA, the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe affirmed a significant revision of Mt. Taylor Mine’s existing mine permit originally issued decades ago under the 1993 New…
Water Quality Control Commission Unanimously Upholds Proposed Mine’s Groundwater Discharge Permit Issued Under the Copper Rule
On August 13–14, 2019, in what many view as bellwether cases, the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) decided two administrative appeal challenges to the first-ever groundwater discharge permit (DP) issued by NMED to a proposed new copper…
Mineral Reservation Clause Allowing Mining Did Not Constrain Surface Owner’s Public Opposition
A New Mexico state court judge has rejected a mineral estate owner’s attempt to constrain a surface owner from publicly opposing its mining project on the basis of a strongly worded mineral reservation that expressly reserved mining rights and attendant surface rights. …
New Mexico Mining Commission Narrowly Expands Minimal Impact Permitting Opportunities for Certain Mining Operations
On April 20, 2016, the New Mexico Mining Commission (“NMMC”) conducted a hearing to consider a rule change to the New Mexico Mining Act Reclamation Program (“MARP”) regulations. The New Mexico Mining Association (“NMMA”) proposed the rule change to expand eligibility for…