All Articles
Oregon Governor Asks For Mineral Withdrawal
November 2009 by Associated Press
Grants Pass, Oregon—Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski wants to head off miners in Oregon after California stopped prospectors from using suction dredges.
The governor sent letters on October 15 to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking them to impose a mineral withdrawal on federal lands surrounding the Kalmiopsis, Wild Rogue and Copper Salmon wilderness areas on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Conservation groups hope to meld the three wilderness areas and surrounding parts of southwestern Oregon into one big wilderness covering 1 million acres—a move Kulongoski has endorsed. Mining is already restricted in the wilderness areas, but the mineral withdrawal would stop new claims in the areas surrounding them. The region includes portions of the Rogue, Illinois and Elk rivers.
The Siskiyou and Klamath mountains of southwestern Oregon were the site of Oregon’s gold rush in the 1850s, and Kulongoski noted that the region has some of the best remaining salmon and steelhead habitat on the West Coast.
“With climate change increasing the pressures on plant and animal species, this area is a critical lifeboat providing intact habitat over a range of elevations from north to south,” Kulongoski wrote. “We are very concerned that the suction dredge miners are now heading for Oregon.”
The governor’s policy director, Mike Carrier, said conservation groups had been urging the governor to call for the mining ban, and he decided to act now because of the potential for increased mining in the area causing harm before a formal wilderness designation is considered by Congress.
The area is just over the hill from Happy Camp, California, where mining on claims along the Klamath River owned by the New 49ers Prospecting Club was practically shut down in August when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation imposing a statewide moratorium on suction dredging until a new environmental review is completed.
Joel King, Wild Rivers district ranger on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, said he had noticed an increase in recreational gold mining that he attributed to rising gold prices and the California dredge moratorium.
“Just about anybody who was mining in Northern California has been looking at Oregon for the next season because it’s being litigated in California right now and we don’t know how that litigation will come out,” said Mike Higbee, a Grants Pass gold miner and member of the New 49ers.
“If we are unable to overturn it before next season, it would only be a natural fact that California miners are going to be looking at Oregon—and Washington and Idaho.”
Montine Blevins of the New 49ers said club president Dave McCracken has scouted out public-access mining locations in Oregon and shared the locations with club members, but he has not made any new claims.
Higbee said he brought his own dredge over from Happy Camp to state-controlled land on the Rogue River. There were 10 other miners from California working the river, he added.
“There are 3,000 licensed suction dredgers (in California) that they have never proved killed a fish,” Higbee said. “They also have 3.2 million licensed fishermen, and their goal is to kill fish.”
Gloria Forest of Sutherlin, treasurer of the Douglas County Prospectors Association, said they regularly pull more lead fishing weights and other garbage out of rivers than gold.
Representatives from the departments of Interior and Agriculture said they had received Kulongoski’s letter and were reviewing it.
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Positive bill passes House
• Anti-mining bill dies in Washington State
Picks & Pans: Treasure Hawk Mine—Cutthroat Mining Corporation
The Treasure Hawk mine was operated by "Crazy Eddie" Bounsall from 1972 until 1988. He died in 1994, and I purchased the Treasure Hawk claims from his wife Betty in 1996.
Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
The Small Hardrock Mill—Part I
Ore dressing is of prime importance to the operator of a small hardrock gold mine. No, Virginia, ore dressing has nothing to do with dressing in the latest spring dresses, or the stuff that gets forced into the turkey on Thanksgiving. It refers to the method of processing ore to extract the valuable minerals contained in the rock—in the case of this series of articles, gold and silver.
The French Mines of El Boleo
Volumes have been written on the subject of mining in Mexico ever since the first Spanish conquistadors undertook to strip bare the newfound land in the 6th century. Gold and silver, which attracted Cortez and the Spanish Inquisition, was there for the taking, and the fabulously rich mines of Guanajuanto, San Miguel de Allende, Zacatecas, Real del Monte, San Luis Potosi, Durango and Taxco, among others, became famous throughout the New World and Europe.
Iowa Hill District
For the last two years we’ve held a hands-on prospectors training session in the Iowa Hill district of California’s Mother Lode country as a part of our Gold Prospecting and Mining Summit event. Because of this, I thought it might be good to take a look at the history, geology and opportunities that the Iowa Hill district still offers to the individual prospector.
AMRA Takes On USFS in Idaho
Mr. Hughes was obviously shaken by our interaction and we are quite confident he assumed we were all missing teeth, long-haired, uneducated, backwoods miners who would immediately become submissive. That didn’t happen...
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Molycorp Minerals Reopens Mountain Pass Mine
• Utah's Crescent Creek Placers
• The Business of Mining—Home Office Tax Deduction
• Peshastin Creek, Washington
• Michigan Proposal Would Restrict Mining Operations
• No Gravel, No Gold
• Nevada Regulators Reach Agreement With Queenstake Resources
• Stillwater Recovers Without GM’s Business
• Gold Has Shown Its Mettle, But How High Can It Go?
• Utility Agrees to Remove Four Klamath River Dams
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes & Mineral and Metal Prices
Free:
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• The Very First Issue of the Mining Journal
