The Bush administration yesterday overturned some of former President Clinton's eleventh hour legislation governing mining. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) explains that the new rule, amending the "3809" surface mining regulations, will eliminate "several unduly burdensome provisions of the current mining regulations." Among the provisions being eliminated is one that allows the Secretary of the Interior to prohibit new mines on federal land if they could cause "substantial irreparable harm" to the environment or communities. The administration is, however, keeping provisions that regulate the use of cyanide in gold mining and the control of acid waste, as well as those that require mining companies to issue reclamation bonds to ensure they will have money for clean up. The new regulations will be published as a final rule on Tuesday and take effect 60 days later. Also, in a separate action, a top legal advisor for the Department of the Interior recommended reversal of a legal decision issued under former Secretary Bruce Babbitt to block an open-pit gold mine near sites sacred to the Quechan Tribe in California. This is perhaps the beginning of more wide-reaching changes to mining laws as Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, intends to ask for Congress' help in a more wide-reaching overhaul of the mining laws.