The regulations at 43 CFR 3500-3590 provide for the leasing of solid minerals other than coal and oil shale. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) needs the information to determine who is eligible to conduct mining operations on the public lands, and that said operations are conducted in a manner that is consistent with the regulations and environmental requirements in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
There are no net changes in the number of responses or the number of hour burdens for this information collection, although some of the responses and hour burdens are re-assigned to different collection activities in the program changes described below.
The net effect of program changes and adjustments is a reduction of $9,975 in non-hour costs. There is an increase of $525 due to adjustments and a decrease of $10,500 due to one of the two program changes in this ICR.
ADJUSTMENTS
The BLM has adjusted fixed processing fees as follows:
1. The fee for a Request for Renewal of a Lease (43 CFR 3511.27) has increased from $500 per response to $525 per response.
2. The fee for an Application to Extend a Prospecting Permit (43 CFR 3505.60 through 3505.66) has increased from $105 per response to $110 per response.
PROGRAM CHANGES
There are two program changes.
First, the collection activity for Qualification Requirements / Associations and Partnerships (43 CFR 3502. 28, 3502.33, and 3502.34) has been separated from the collection activity for Qualification Requirements / Corporations (43 CFR 3502.30, 3502.33, and 3502.34). Both of these activities were combined in previous ICRs as Qualification Requirements / Private Sector (43 CFR subpart 3502). The separation in this ICR has no net effect on hour burdens or non-hour burdens.
Second, the collection activity for Request for Renewal of a Lease (43 CFR 3511.27) has been separated from the collection activity for Objection to Proposed Readjustment of Lease Terms and Conditions (43 CFR 3511.25 and 3511.2). As discussed above, there is a $525 fee for Requests for Renewal of a Lease, and that fee has been adjusted upward from $500. There is no fee for an Objection to Proposed Readjustment of Lease Terms and Conditions.
NET EFFECTS
The separation of the collection activity for Request for Renewal of a Lease (43 CFR 3511.27) from the collection activity for Objection to Proposed Readjustment of Lease Terms and Conditions (43 CFR 3511.25 and 3511.2) results in the reduction of non-hour costs. That is because some of the responses were erroneously assigned to the âObjectionâ activity. Those burdens should have been assigned only to the âRequest for Renewal.â This information collection request corrects that error. The decrease due to the program change is partially offset by the upward adjustment in the fee.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Production Records (43 CFR 3597.1 and 3597.2)