The Minerals and Mining Advisory Council (MMAC) is still seeking administrator applicants for a few states. The overall goal is to get the traditional mining districts in working order so miners can obtain Coordination status to prevent federal agencies from disregarding our rights.
First, I want to correct the listing of states where the 1872 Mining Law applies. In “What’s All This Talk About Mining Districts?” (April 2015 issue) we originally listed the following states:
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
However, we neglected to include two additional states with public lands: Virginia and West Virginia.
California has the most applicants so far with thirteen. Several states do not have sufficient applicants to hold a vote—a minimum of three is required. Click on the Mining Districts link at mmacusa.org and select the state where your mining claims are located to see the names and short biographies for those persons applying for an administrative position.
Administrative applications will still be accepted for states that have insufficient numbers. If you’re interested in getting in on the ground floor and can attend a meeting or two each month to get the ball rolling, please visit the “Forms, Laws, Jobs & Docs” link at mmacusa.org and click on the “Administrative Application” link.
Mining claim owners are encouraged to review the administrative applicants and vote.
Public Lands for the People is working on a Miner’s Bill of Rights with the support of several members of Congress. This Bill of Rights will be presented to the Bureau of Land Management to give them the opportunity to reach a Memorandum of Understanding with MMAC regarding reasonable regulations. If no MOU agreement can be reached with BLM, then the issue will be put through Congress. We will report more on this topic in our July 2015 issue.
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Our fundraising drive for Public Lands for The People continues. For those of you unfamiliar with PLP, they have been at the forefront in fighting for the rights of miners, battling to restore the rights of suction gold dredgers and other miners.
How it works: A one-year PLP individual membership is normally $35. You can get a one-year subscription to our monthly publication for $27.95 and include $25 for a PLP membership and we’ll contribute the additional $10 for your one-year PLP membership. If you already have a subscription you can certainly choose to add another year to your subscription to take advantage of this offer.
Here are the subscribers who have recently stepped up and taken advantage of this offer through April 13, 2015:
Earl Mattson—Boulder Creek, CA
John Hammer—Saint Joseph, MO
David Hall—Omak, WA
Barry Potter—Bakersfield, CA
Give us a call if you would like to add your name to this list!
August 2014 The Bureau of Land Management announced an increase in location filing fees and annual maintenance fees for unpatented mining claims, mill sites and tunnel sites.
December 2014 • State attorneys claim the Court of Appeals wrongly relied on South Dakota Mining Association v. Lawrence County regarding federal preemption...
Just prior to our press deadline, we learned that a bill had been introduced in the Idaho House of Representatives to redefine suction gold dredging as a preferred use in public waterways in Idaho.
PLP had been attempting to raise funds to hire a lobbyist. The excessive cost made it prohibitive, so Clark and Joe packed up their bags and headed off to make this trip themselves.
September 2016 Even if the California Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Rinehart, suction dredge miners would be facing the wrath of the State Water Resources Control Board...