Utah lawmakers advance bill dealing with mining precious underground resources

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah House committee voted unanimously to advance a bill focused on brine mining in its first hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday.

HB478, sponsored by Rep. Bridger Bolinder, R-Salt Lake City, looks to give the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining authority to better oversee and manage the brine mining industry in Utah.

“We want to encourage it. We want to also set up a regulatory framework to manage it the best that we can. And I think this bill begins to do that,” Bolinder said.

Brine mining is the extraction of precious resources that are found in underground saltwater throughout Utah, including lithium, potassium, sodium, sulfur, bromine and many others.

Bolinder told the committee this bill does not affect the mineral extraction happening on Great Salt Lake.

According to the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, brine mining has been happening in Utah for more than a century. Potash, which is harvested for potassium, has been mined in Utah since the days of World War I.

However, lithium, which has become a hot commodity in recent years thanks to smartphone and EV batteries, was first harvested in Utah in 2020, according to DOGM. Since then, other companies have explored mining the resource in the Beehive State.

The high demand has also brought about issues with mineral ownership, DOGM said. Mineral ownership is split into three types and sometimes operators with different ownership can clash. 

“My goal with this is to find a balance. Where we can promote this, we can be business-friendly. Let industry succeed while also maintaining and being good stewards of our environment,” Bolinder said.

The bill is now on its way to the full House for consideration.

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