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Legislative and Regulatory Update
July 2009 by Scott Harn
• Roadless Rule back in play
The Obama Administration has issued an order calling for a one-year moratorium on most road building, logging and other development in National Forests that were part of the Clinton-era Roadless Rule in 2001.
Approximately 58 million acres are affected by the directive issued by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on May 28, which gives him sole authority over all proposed construction projects and management decisions in designated roadless areas in every state except Idaho. Idaho has implemented its own plan to manage these areas.
The original Roadless Rule was contested and resulted in two opposite decisions from two separate federal courts; one struck down the rule while the other upheld it. Both decisions have been appealed.
• Action needed on SB 670
It may not be too late to fire off a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger of California, regarding SB 670.
The bill would stop all suction dredging in California until a new Environment Impact Report is completed. See page 5 in this issue for more information.
• Abbey recommended to head BLM
Bob Abbey, formerly the top Interior Department official in Nevada, has been nominated to be the director of the Bureau of Land Management by President Obama.
Abbey retired in 2005 as BLM’s Nevada director after over 30 years of government service.
• Capped and jobless
Organizations are crunching numbers to determine the number of American jobs that will be lost if the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passes in Congress.
The Heritage Foundation estimates that 987,440 jobs would be lost during the first eight years of cap-and-trade regulations, rising to 2.5 million jobs lost in America over the first 25 years due to the added costs associated with cap-and-trade compliance.
• S 787
The Clean Water Restoration Act is a bill that would take jurisdiction over waterways away from individual states and give that authority to the federal government. It would also remove the requirement that a waterway be navigable to be subject to government regulation. All bodies of water—including groundwater, ditches, pipes, streets, gutters and desert washes—would be regulated under the Clean Water Act.
The Senate Environment and Public Works committee was due to vote on the bill on June 18.
• SB 796 & HR 699
The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, and its companion bill in the House, HR 699, remains in committee while Congress addresses cap-and-trade, health care, and other issues.
Both bills would place additional burdens on mining in the United States with additional regulations, financial guarantees and royalties.
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There are so many environmental restrictions and regulations being proposed in Congress that it’s difficult to keep track of them.
It is going to be a tough road over the next several years. Democrats are in control of Congress and the White House, and environmental groups are taking full advantage of the opportunity to push through legislation that severely restricts public and private land use in America. 
Green Valley Gold District, Payson, Arizona
Most gold-bearing quartz veins found in the district were fracture fillings in faults enclosed by crushed quartz zones along their margins. Since the host rocks were often extensively weathered, portions of the veins stood out as positive, resistant outcrops. The gold-bearing veins ranged from a few inches wide to the vein at the Gowan mine that was as much as 12 feet wide. Greens Force Strategic Mine Out of Business
Communist China Now Controls Supply of Rare Minerals
North Korea Seeks Outside Help to Modernize Mining
Eager to earn hard currency, isolated North Korea is trying to modernize its decrepit mining industry with foreign help.
Coprolite—A Prospector's Tale
Gold nuggets come in all forms, but I never expected that dinosaur nuggets would too, and at a decent price.
Looking Back
Excerpts from California Mining Journal, our original title, published 50 years ago this month.
Picks & Pans: Mining Tungsten Ore—A Case History
In 1977, when the price of tungsten hit one of its highs, three of us formed U.S. Western Mines to look for scheelite, the mineral ore of tungsten. Union Carbide Corporation was purchasing raw tungsten ore at...
Melman on Gold & Silver
“Scandals, scandals, everywhere, and not an end in sight!” might be the tag line of a musical depicting the financial markets as they near the end of a particularly tumultuous year. First we had the massive accounting scandals associated with the Enron collapse. This was followed by the corporate scandals where inaccurate and misleading research of one sort or another made headlines. But none of those compare in possible scope to the mutual fund scandals...
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The Bawl Mill
• The Suction Gold Dredging Fight Continues in California
• Gold in the South Pass Greenstone Belt, Wyoming
• Chinese Buy Out Australian Miners
• Using a Winch to Work Smarter, Not Harder
• The Forgotten Specimen—Part II
• Germany Developing Gold Vending Machine
• How to Complete Assessment Work and Claim Maintenance
• More Tennessee Gold
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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