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Legislative and Regulatory Update
March 2008 by Scott Harn
As we previously reported, the House passed the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act (HR 2262) on November 1, 2007. HR 2262 would impose an 8 percent gross royalty on new mines, a 4 percent gross royalty on existing mines, give regulatory agencies the authority to reject proposed mines, and authorize citizen lawsuits, among other things.
The Senate held its first hearing on the bill on January 24, 2008. Stakeholders from both sides presented their views. It’s unclear at this juncture whether the Senate will start with HR 2262 and make changes or draft their own version from scratch.
• Washington Gold & Fish rules
The debate continues in Washington over gold mining regulations. After countless meetings between stakeholders, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife tried to force severe restrictions on gold miners and prospectors without the science to back up their position. The miners felt betrayed.
WDFW based their new restrictions on water temperature without citing scientific evidence to support their conclusions. As expected, the miners were upset with the agency and made their opinions known at several public hearings. The remaining scheduled hearings were canceled and everything has ground to a halt.
The Habitat division of WDFW issued a statement that acknowledged there was "significant discontent about the proposed rules not only among members of the prospecting community, but also among those prospectors that sat on the workgroup.
Prospectors have expressed significant dissatisfaction with proposed work windows, numerous specific work requirements, and in the rule development process itself. Because of this, Habitat Program is delaying presentation of the proposed rules to the Commission until outstanding issues can be resolved."
You can view the proposed rules by clicking on Pending Rules & Regulations under the Resources tab on our website. (Note: The prosposed rules were removed from the WDFW website. For the current rules, see wdfw.wa.gov/habitat/goldfish/)
In the meantime, constructive comments will still be accepted. Comments can be mailed to Lisa Wood, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N, Olympia, WA 98501-1092; faxed to Lisa Wood at (360) 902-2946; or emailed to SEPADesk@dfw.wa.gov
The Spanish Silver of Mowry
The Arizona mine and town that eventually became known as Mowry actually started with the discovery of a rich ledge of silver by either Spanish Jesuit priests or Spanish soldiers around 1736.
Detectors Versus Pans
Mike scored the best with a total of one-half ounce of gold nuggets. Tom, Brian and Greg each had pieces in the one and a half pennyweight range. The rest of us had small gold and nothing like these three.
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• AB 1032 on Governor’s desk
• Shasta Miners take on DFG
Prospecting for Liberated Gold
Some will doubt its value given the ultra-fine particle size… Some will become encouraged about not having to incur significant time and expense to break rock.
The Geology of Diamond Deposits
New theories have been developed and they may lead to new discoveries and give prospectors some new insight on where to look for diamonds.
Placer Gold Deposits of New Mexico
While a large number of locations have yielded some placer gold, most of the state’s placer production has come from a few productive districts.
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