The General Government (an antebellum way of referring to what is now known as the federal government) viewed expansion across the continent as a primary goal of the nation. The government gave land to railroads that would undertake the risk and expense of laying rails across the expanse of the West. The government also hoped that people would seek ways to reach the huge forests of the West so they could cut down trees and make the lumber available for construction. Similarly, there was considerable hope that precious metals in the West would attract people to settle the vast region. And by "people", most agreed that this mean "Americans." For example, frustrated by the way the California Gold Rush attracted foreigners, the California Legislature passed “An Act for the Better Regulation of the mines, and the government of foreign miners” on April 13, 1850; this forced foreigners to pay fees/fines to extract gold from California.

In general, the federal, territorial, and state governments recognized that mining was a risky business with a slim margin for profit. Gold in the ground isn't worth anything, and if the government wanted to capture the benefit of the wealth (that is, the economic benefits of having more gold in circulation) - and to encourage the settlement of remote areas, it needed to encourage mining. Making mining more costly - and facing the nationalization of the resource - would have discouraged miners and hampered the settlement of the West.

As a result of this general attitude, Congress passed two acts to regulate how mineral resources were to be handled when found on federal land. Mind you, this only made sense once the federal government could actually manage the unsettled parts of the West. In 1848, it was still largely a free-for-all. It took a stronger federal government (feeling its strength after the success against the "recent Rebellion") and it took more people living in the West before the government in Washington, D. C., could conceive of the idea of managing Western resources.

The two acts in question were mineral acts passed in 1866 and then amended with a final act in 1872. Here's an article I wrote about this. The newly-elected Nevada Senator William Stewart had made "his pile" (in the vernacular of the time - that is to say, he became very rich) thanks to representing Comstock mining companies. He was an advocate of large corporate mining, and he wanted to do what he could to encourage mining.

In 1866, Stewart drafted the National Mining Act, which was passed. This was amended (with Stewart's assistance) by the 1872 National Mining Act. These two laws settled how the federal government would manage mineral resources on public land. Before the Civil War, the federal government could not hope to reach across the continent. After the War, with greater strength - and then especially with the transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, the federal government was able to give serious consideration to the question about the management of resources. And what did it decide? Under the guidance of corporate-friendly Senator Stewart, federal law went to great lengths to encourage mining, to make it easy to do, and to place as few restrictions on the process as possible.

What's most astonishing about the 1872 act is that it remains the law of the land (and of the gold, silver, etc....). To quote from the article I cite: "With Democratic control in Congress and the White House [i.e. President Bill Clinton] in 1993, reform of the National Mining Law seemed inevitable, but once again, consensus on this problematic subject remained elusive. Since 1995, the political balance has prevented amendments to the law." There have been several "windows of opportunity" to amend the 1872 act - including in the early years of the Obama administration. This archaic law persists because the industry supports it, GOP members of Congress generally side with the mining industry, and it would take Democratic control of Congress and the White House to manage an amendment to the law. Of critical importance in preventing an amendment was the very thing that created the law, namely a powerful Nevada senator with an interest in promoting and sustaining the mining industry. In 1866 and 1872, it was Senator William Stewart, more recently, it was Senator (and then Majority leader) Harry Reid.