Dale Bumpers: “I thank the Senator. I stood here and pleaded with this body to put a moratorium to stop this practice, but lost 50-48.…”

“I thank the Senator. I stood here and pleaded with this body to put a moratorium to stop this practice, but lost 50-48. Four days later, the Stillwater Mining Co. filed an application with the Secretary for patents on approximately 2,000 acres of public land in Montana for $5 an acre--roughly $10,000. If the Secretary winds up having to deed the land, and he certainly will under existing law, to the Stillwater Mining Co., the next story you read in the Washington Post will be that the Secretary of the Interior has deeded 2,000 acres of land belonging to the people of this country for $10,000 and underneath that 2,000 acres lies $38 billion worth of platinum and palladium. Mr. President, are these my figures? No, they are the figures presented by the Stillwater Mining Co. Mr. President, 2 rac{1}{2} ext{ years ago, Stillwater said they did not know whether they could make that pay off or not. They say there is $38 billion worth of minerals under it, but they did not know whether they could make it pay off. Really? A year ago the Manville Corp., which had jointly formed the Stillwater Mining Co. with Chevron bought Chevron out and took Stillwater public at roughly $13 a share. Last week, Manville sold its remaining interest in Stillwater to a bunch of investors for $110 million plus a 5-percent royalty based on a net smelter return. Not bad for a company that 2 rac{1}{2} ext{ years ago said they did not know whether they could make it profitable or not.”