There's a cost to mining, it's not cheap.

To me, that is in no way shape or form: "reclaimed".

Reclamation is the noun form of the verb to reclaim.

Do you think mines today are missing that in the US?

I think the cost of mining is a long-tail problem. Just throwing some top soil over a mine isn't solving many of the problems a mine introduces. One of the examples I'm giving is heavy metal pollution of important-to-human water ways.

In general, mines in the US have a very piss poor track record of dealing with long term environmental issues. I think one be a fool for believing the greenwashing marketing of a huge multi-national mining company, or their honest intent to put the land back in a state - or better - than what it was. That is a fantasy. As they reap enormous profits from the mining, I would want you think of who is actually bearing that cost.

"mines in the US have a very piss poor track record of dealing with long term environmental issues" - you are conflating old, abandoned mines with current mines. Current mining processes deal with everything you've listed.

We need mining. We should be mining in the US for a variety of reasons. If that can be done responsibly, why wouldn't you want that?

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Water_Act 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_reclamation