  
	Another major challenge in changing current mining policy is how best to regulate the closure of mines which have scared the landscape and present an ecological hazard.  Any major change in mining policy that would be more restrictive on the economic viability would create a new set of problems.  Not only would workers become jobless, the 1872 law is unclear of who should bear the responsibility of ecological cleanup because there was no such question in 1872.
	The true challenge in modifying the 1872 law is that with these problems compounded upon one another, no mutually amiable solutions can be suggested for modification of the law.  With no simple solutions to the problem there are few willing to tackle the antiquated policy, which would risk alienating a portion of the population.  This extends not only to mining policy but to public lands policy as a whole.  Most find it easier to allow a policy none are happy with to continue as opposed to making a single group happy.
	Thus, the challenge in creating a comprehensive overhaul of mining policy relates not just to the balancing of interests in a new policies creation but in the general ambivalence by those in charge of policy.  
	In order to best amend the current mining policy the economic realities of modern resource-extraction must be taken into account, along with the socio-ecological aspects of modern business practices.  With these ideas as a base, comprehensive policy changes could be created.  The first recommendation will deal with how best to institute policies which would address the current mine operators which operate with profits in relation to responsibility for environmental cleanup and pollution abatement.  The second recommendation will address how to implement strategies from Recommendation One on operations which do not operate with profits. The third recommendation will address how best to implement environmental cleanup on sites which have been abandoned and for which no current entity has ties to the former operator.  The last recommendation will describe how best to implement new technologies to extend the economic viability of mining in the United States with making it socially and politically acceptable.
	Modern American mining corporations should be forced to pay for any ecological damage for which they are responsible on American soil.  Thus, it is necessary implement a policy forcing responsibility of cleaning up ecological damage at current mining and former mining operations which are under the auspices of a currently-existing mining corporation or other existing entity.  Of course, in the event of an entity that cannot afford to clean an area it would be prudent for another option to be available to better take care of ecological damage.  This will be addressed later.
	Existing companies which manage and operate mining operations and obtain profits should be able to implement strategies for both reducing ecological damage and for dealing with current ecological problems due to the fact that the profits being reaped for the company come from the exploitation of the environment. 