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Also in the good news category, the current administration has taken many of our recommendations regarding much-needed regulatory relief to heart.

When we got set up and I started to swing the coil over a small mound, I got a good signal, faint but repeatable.

• Congress deals with other priorities
• Alaska miners get relief on state lands

What do you do when you’ve located a promising deposit of gold or gemstones, but it’s trapped in solid rock?

I cleared the connector by poking a small Phillips screwdriver through it. To ensure the bore was clean, I dunked the connector into some water and then blew it clean with my shop air compressor.

I have a bunch of ideas about what to do in the near term and then other thoughts about what things might look like a few months from now when I hope the situation will look a lot better.

While sitting there, I wondered if I should go over the hole again. I did and got a louder signal that turned out being about another twelve inches deep.

Toward the end of this summer, we expect another Federal Register notice will be published that deals with Forest Service mining regulations.

This second trip down was a challenge. It started in Colfax on the Stevens Trail, where the distance to the river is four miles with an elevation drop of about 1,000 feet.

He could tell that the top part just slid partway down over the bottom half. So, he tried to twist it apart with his hands. No go!

I informed them fully about where we would be and what we would be doing—sort of—withholding some of the more not so smart and quite dangerous sounding parts.

Many miners know that lead is very commonly associated with silver values, but the truth is that it is also associated with gold values in many locations as well.

We are at a crossroads; either we establish the mining, production and refining of rare earth elements here in the US or we remain subjected to the whims of the Chinese government.

In all the years I have been writing this column (approaching 35) and in my writings elsewhere, I have to admit that I never foresaw the kind of immense changes that have been wrought during the past two months…