A two-pronged approach is necessary to restore suction dredging; federal preemption needs to be established as addressed above via petition; and clarification from the EPA is needed to establish that no Section 402 permit is necessary when there is no “addition” of a pollutant.

Most placer equipment is really made with gold in the 30 and larger mesh sizes in mind, though if carefully used can often get reasonable recovery down to the 50 mesh size.

He had meetings with Honduran officials at all levels, set up a new corporation called Raptor Mining in El Corpus, Honduras, and is in the process of establishing a non-profit called “Step Up for Honduras.”