DENVER - Towns throughout the Rocky Mountain West that oppose mines near water supplies and scenic areas are backing efforts to revamp a federal law regulating hard-rock mining that's changed little since Ulysses S. Grant was president.

A bill passed by the U.S. House in November would impose the first-ever federal royalties on gold, silver, copper and other metals mines, beef up environmental controls and give federal agencies the ability to say "No" to a mine that would irreparably harm the environment.

For many, that last part is the heart of the bill. Under the 1872 law, federal agencies can scrutinize a company's plan and require environmental safeguards. But they can't decide, as they can with oil and gas drilling, that no development should occur in a certain spot.

The bill, H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, faces a rougher time in the Senate. It would allow local, state and tribal governments to petition the federal government to withdraw certain lands from the filing of new mining claims.

Industry officials say they don't oppose updating the law, or even charging royalties. But they insist that the House bill's fees would be punitive and that provisions allowing denial of mining claims would hurt the industry. Prices for many of the metals covered by the hard-rock mining law -- gold, copper, uranium, molybdenum -- have surged in recent years as worldwide demand has increased.

"Let's don't literally kill the golden goose that's supplying our country with the metals and minerals we need," said Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association in Washington.

But proponents say it's past time to overhaul a law originally intended to encourage settlement of the West.

"It's the last of the great dinosaurs from the 1800s," said Roger Flynn, director of the Colorado-based law firm Western Mining Action Project.

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