Casperson said he is not worried about businesses subverting the language in the bill because the DEQ would still have the authority to halt the new construction if it is deemed environmentally unsound.

Chad Lewis of Sacramento got into a good bedrock seam on Monday and was pulling out small chunks of bedrock with embedded gold from he lower pit. Mark Dayton of El Dorado was about ten yards away on the same line, but his spot had some visible quartz mixed in.

We’ve had two trips to the deserts of Nevada and explored mines and mill sites, hiked miles of ravines in California, and swung our detector coils over thousands of square yards of bedrock.