The Times They Are A-Changin’: Wind, Solar to be Favored Over Mining Claims

 by Chris Clarke

REWIRE

on April 29, 2013 12:30 PM

There’ll be no more of this on possible solar project sites | Photo: cyborgsuzy/Flickr/Creative Commons License

Despite a growing consensus that the era of utility-scale solar on public lands is slowly drawing to a close, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced that it’s taking measures to ensure that applications for solar and wind projects on the lands it manages are given higher priority than other potential uses. A new regulation to be adopted this week could ban new mining claims and other non-energy proposals from land on which the BLM is considering a solar or wind proposal.

I am very happy to announce that the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (DFW) has denied a recent Petition from the Center for Biological Diversity which attempted to expand the regulatory definition of “suction dredge” to include our new method of underwater suction mining. Had the Petition been approved, our new method would have been prevented by California’s existing state-wide moratorium on suction dredge mining.

It is nice to win one every once in a while. This was a big one.

It now provides a green light for what is adding up to a very productive mining season in California!

You can find more about this in our May newsletter, along with some very helpful advice on how to relate with the U.S. Forest Service in the wake of the recent 9th Circuit Decision.

Please just follow the address below:

http://www.goldgold.com/green-light-on-underwater-suction-mining-5-2013.html

For those of you who are not yet New 49′ers members, please consider the special half-price offer on Associate Membership that we are extending to our Internet subscribers:

http://www.goldgold.com/associatememberoffer

If you are new to our newsletter, you can read some recent back issues here:

http://www.goldgold.com/whats-new

All the best,

Dave Mack

The New 49er’s, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

PNP comment: The below comment is on the article below it, regarding the suction dredges. I so totally agree with Dick, who said: 

…But it’s OK to dump millions of cubic yards when the dams come down…

PNP comment: My what a mis-use of words and truths. This “sucking machine” also cleans the sediment from gravel and salmon then love to lay their eggs is the clean gravel. But, of course, the Greenies claim the opposite. Suction dredge mining is quite beneficial and create NO toxic nightmare. What a FEAR tactic! It really comes down to mining law — and gold claims are legal private property, going back to the 1866 Mining Law. Oh, and remember the Greenies and Leftist government doesn’t want anyone to be able to find gold. — Editor Liz Bowen

FRESNO, Calif. –  A legal battle is brewing over whether California gold miners should be allowed to vacuum up the bottoms of rivers.

The controversy is about a process called suction dredge mining, a practice popularized on the Discovery Channel show “Bering Sea Gold” but banned for the last four years in California, as state courts continue to weigh new environmental regulations.

“Suction dredging is the best way to extract gold from the environment,” said Craig Lindsay, a former dredger and president of the Western Mining Alliance, an advocacy group working to protect mining rights in Western States.

Suction dredge mining is a process in which prospectors look for gold by diving underwater using a 4-inch wide hose to vacuum dirt and gravel to find gold.

“What we’ve done in our own way is take that ethic of hard work and individualism and trying to make a living by using our skills just like the ’49ers did,” Lindsay said.

But the current ban forces the more than 3,000 California dredge permit holders to use other methods to get the precious metal. And Lindsay believes this ban is unfair.

“It’s efficient, it allows people to earn a living, feed their families and does minimal amounts of damage to the environment in addition to removing all of the toxins from the environment, like lead and mercury,” Lindsay said.

But opponents view suction dredge mining as a harmful form of technology that will affect clean water to endangered species and mercury dispersal.

“Suction dredge machines suck up that mercury and blow it up into tiny pieces, and those pieces are much more toxic, much more available to be absorbed into the bodies of fish and insects. And when human beings eat fish contaminated with mercury, it’s absolutely toxic,” said Elizabeth Martin, CEO of the Sierra Fund, a community foundation for the Sierra.

Environmental organizations like the Sierra Fund say miners a hundred years ago used mercury in the form of quicksilver and left it behind in the water, and the dredge machines stir it back up in the water when they vacuum the river bottoms. The California State Water Board came out with a report detailing how suction dredging can affect water quality.

“There was really no question the science is settled. The suction dredge machines create a terrible toxic nightmare in our water,” Martin said.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife acknowledges that suction dredge mining affects the environment, and the agency has been asked to offer recommendations on how it can impose a more comprehensive regulatory scheme. But department Director Chuck Bonham says the agency has limitations.

“We don’t have the authority to regulate all the impacts to the environment that we’ve identified,” Bonham said. “We’re managing a pretty complex litigation caseload in San Bernadino County, which is the consolidation of lawsuits against us by the Karuk Tribe, environmental organizations, as well as an association of miners on the recreational and commercial side.”

The recommendations offered by the agency might affect the outcome of extending the ban or getting miners back in action.

Michelle Macaluso is part of the Junior Reporter program at Fox News. Get more information on the program here.

April 1, 2013

              The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) previously reported the issuance of arrest warrants for the burglary and theft of gold and other artifacts taken from the Siskiyou County Superior Court House on January 31, 2012.  On April 1, 2013, one of the suspects, Mr. David Dean Johnson, 49, of El Cerrito, CA turned himself in to a SCSO Detective and is in-custody at the Siskiyou County Jail.  He is being held in lieu of $1,000,000.00 bail.

During the January 2012 theft, over a million dollars’ worth of gold and other items were stolen from a display case in the court house lobby in the county seat of Yreka.  Mr.  Johnson, along with Mr. Scott Wayne Bailey, 51, of El Sobrante, CA has been identified by SCSO Detectives as the key suspects in the case after a long and exhaustive investigation.   Recently, the arrest warrants were issued through the Siskiyou County District Attorney’s Office and Siskiyou County Superior Court.

The search warrants were the result of a then nearly year-long investigation of the Courthouse gold burglary during the early morning hours of January 31, 2012.  $1,257,500 in gold, jewelry and artifacts were taken in the burglary and theft.

The investigation revealed that at least some of the gold proceeds may have been used to purchase various high-value items.

Sheriff Jon Lopey stated, “We are glad that Mr. Johnson chose to surrender and we are hopeful that with one of the primary suspects’ in-custody that we can develop additional information that will help us bring this major crime to a successful conclusion.   Although we still have a lot of work to do in this case, Mr. Johnson’s arrest is welcomed development.”

A $50,000.00 reward is being offered for the identification, arrest and conviction of the suspects involved in the court house gold theft case.   The investigation into the Siskiyou County Courthouse burglary and theft is on-going and anyone with further information is urged to contact Detective Yves Pike, SCSO, at (530) 842-8354, or, call our 24-hour dispatch number of (530) 841-2900.

Police have named two suspects in a gold heist in California that netted more than $1 million a year ago.

The two men, both from the San Francisco Bay area, allegedly made off with more than $1.25 million in gold, jewelry and artifacts from a display case in the lobby of the Siskiyou County Courthouse during a February 2012 robbery.

“This has been a long and arduous investigation . . . “

- Sheriff Jon Lopey

Now, police say they’ve issued felony warrants for David Dean Johnson, 49, of El Cerrito and Scott Wayne Bailey, 51, of El Sobrante.

The men are the primary suspects, the LA Times reported.

“This has been a long and arduous investigation involving … suspects responsible for burglarizing our courthouse and stealing a historic gold display and other antiquities which cannot be replaced,” Sheriff Jon Lopey said in the release, according to the paper.

After making off with the gold and other items, Johnson and Bailey used the money from the sale of the goods to purchase “high-value” items, Lopey said.

The entire gold collection before the theft was valued at about $3 million. Lopey said it would be “highly speculative” to guess how much of the gold, if any, would eventually be recovered.

Surveillance footage captured video images of two men breaking into the courthouse at the time of the heist. An alarm that was rigged to notify Yreka police and sheriff’s deputies did not sound at the time.

Yreka, the seat of Siskiyou County, sits in the shadow of 14,000-foot Mount Shasta near the Oregon border.

Miners and other residents donated much of the gold to the collection over the past century.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/31/police-id-two-suspects-in-1m-california-gold-heist/?test=latestnews#ixzz2PAkkyHcr

            The Associated Press

                    Published: March 22, 2013

                                    FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The state has filed a lawsuit in a fight over access to mining claims near Chicken.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://is.gd/y9q9RK) says the state’s lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges the federal government’s assertion that it has ownership of multiple trail rights of way around the Taylor Highway community.

Chicken traditionally has been used by miners to access their claims, but access has been restricted in recent years by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Gov. Sean Parnell says the federal government is overreaching. The state has specified six trails in the lawsuit that total 65 miles and encompass a 400-square-mile area. The state says all the trails originate in Chicken, located at 68 Mile Taylor Highway, and were established by gold miners more than 100 years ago.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/03/22/2835671/state-files-lawsuit-on-access.html#storylink=cpy

Location:

JCLS Medford Library Branch

205 South Central Avenue

Medford, Oregon 97501

March 7, 2013,

6:30 pm

***

·  The attack to shut down Oregon suction dredging has begun – Page 5

www.treasurenet.com › … › Gold Prospecting Forum › Gold ProspectingCached

You +1′d this publicly. Undo

21 posts - Feb 18

Though, Mark Stopher will talk politely to you on the phone.

Make no mistake, the “stakeholder meetings” are solely for the purpose of Stopher and his friends to …

Treat Stopher with the same curtsey he received from the ranchers in Siskiyou County!

March 7- Jackson Co. Public Library, Medford, 6:30 pm.
***

Oregon Senator Bates (Ashland-Medford District) and others have submitted three anti-mining bills to the Oregon legislature.

If these destructive bills are passed into law, it will put a complete end to suction dredge and all other forms of motorized gold mining in the entire State of Oregon! These bills are being pushed by anti-mining activists who want to eliminate the last remaining productive economic activity on America’s public lands.

Just at the time when we have figured out how to do some (limited) underwater suction mining in California, this is not the time for us to lose all of Oregon!

If we do not all pull together and kill these bills right now, we will find ourselves devoting years and years trying to overcome them through expensive litigation. We must flood the Oregon senate with very vocal opposition right now!

You can find all the important details right here:

http://www.goldgold.com/action-alert-january-2013.html

All the best,

Dave Mack

The New 49er’s, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

As many of you may have already heard about the award-winning indie western called Heathens & Thieves,

 this is your chance to see it in Chico on the big screen – for one day only!

 The ranch in the wilds of Northern California was right here in Scott Valley. Much of the movie was shot here in various locations.

HEATHENS & THIEVES

starring Gwendoline Yeo, Don Swayze and Andrew Simpson

co-directed by Chico native Megan Peterson & John Douglas Sinclair

produced by Peter H. Scott & Matthew Marconi

production design by Chico native Kyle Peterson

EL REY THEATER

230 w. 2nd Street in Downtown Chico

Sunday, November 25th at 4pm

Tickets at the door – $8

Q&A to follow with filmmakers and lead actress Gwendoline Yeo (from Desperate Housewives and Broken Trail, and winner of two best Actress awards at Worldfest Houston and RIFF

for her portrayal of “Kun Hua” in Heathens and Thieves)

Come meet the filmmakers, bring your friends and support the arts –

not to mention have fun watching a suspenseful western noir!

then join us for drinks afterwards downtown, location TBD.

You can check out the trailer at www.heathensandthieves.com or visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeathensAndThieves

We really hope to see you there!!

Let us know if you think you can make it.

Thank you! – Megan

What others have said about the movie:

“an unabashedly old-fashioned western” - joe leydon, COWBOYS & INDIANS

“an exciting and satisfying Western suspenser that packs plenty of gunplay…and a horse stampede the likes of which you haven’t seen in years” - HENRY’S WESTERN ROUNDUP

“the cast in place is pitch perfect” - REEL Georgia