Reinhart Petition Update

I've already posted twice on the Reinhart case that may come before the US Supreme Court (here and here).

Dave McCracken of California's New 49er's prospecting organization has called once again for miners to write to the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, and Donald Trump with updated information opposing the Solicitor General's recommendation.  Here is his latest message:

It has come to our attention that The Solicitor General’s brief to the U.S. Supreme Court was written by an Obama administration holdover, Assistant Solicitor General, LANE N. MCFADDEN. This is the very same person who briefed the California Supreme Court that States should have the authority to impose regulations upon mining on the federal lands that can be so burdensome; the regulations can be designed to kill mining altogether.

That is where we find ourselves in California and Oregon today – shut down unless we are given an impartial review by the Supreme Court. Mr. McFadden’s more recent brief to the U.S. Supreme Court basically makes the same leftist arguments.

We do not believe the Trump Administration is aware of the position Mr. McFadden has represented on behalf of the Attorney General's Office -- or represents President Trump's intentions.

We still have time to make them aware of it.

Even if these letters do not reach the target on time, bringing the matter to the Trump Team's attention is going to help us a great deal.  A very similar case in Oregon is working its way towards the high court. So the more we can do right now, the better off we are going to be in the end.  The stakes are too high for us to miss any opportunity!

We are requesting as many of you as possible to immediately send a letter to Attorney General, Jeff Sessions with copies to the Trump-appointed Solicitor General and Donald Trump.  Here is a sample letter that you can either copy and paste from or use to draft your own language:

http://www.goldgold.com/sample-ltr-ag-sessions.html

Here is the link to our attorney's letter that we refer to in the letter:

http://www.goldgold.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Letter-to-President-Trump-12-8-17.pdf

As always, we are asking all of the other mining organizations to develop a concentrated effort in this last big push.

For as long as we have been fighting to recover our mining rights, there has never been a more important time to make our voices heard. Our future, and to a large degree, America's future, hangs in the balance which very well might swing our way if we all make a lot of noise right now!

Thanks for all that you guys do to support our efforts!

Dave McCracken

The New 49'er Legal Fund

The New 49er's, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

It looks like the anti-miners are attacking on a broad front.  Let's do all we can to save small-scale mining for 2018 and the years to come.

Trout Unlimited Petitions WDFW to Outlaw Suction Dredging in Washington

As reported last night on this blog, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is holding a conference call on January 5, 2018, to decide whether to approve a petition on motorized suction dredging.

In response to a query from your editor, WDFW this morning sent the following details regarding this petition:

The petition is from Trout Unlimited and requests the Commission to

1.  Remove motorized suction dredging as an authorized activity in the Gold & Fish Pamphlet, and instead, require individual applications for standard Hydraulic Project Approval (HPAs).

2.  Ensure HPA requirements provide for protection of fish life and habitat necessary to comply with federal law, namely the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Clean Water Act (CWA).

3.  Prohibit motorized suction dredging in rivers and creeks designated as critical habitat for ESA-listed fish species.

Trout Unlimited describes itself as "the nation’s largest coldwater recreational fisheries and conservation organization, with over 5,000 members in the State of Washington."

Among other things, their petition requests the Fish and Wildlife Commission to limit the methods used in small-scale prospecting and mining to those specifically authorized in RCW 77.55.011(21):   Pans; nonmotorized sluice boxes; concentrators; and minirocker boxes.  At present, they are requesting a ban on only motorized suction dredging.  Potentially, however, the reasoning behind this petition could result in a ban on such basic tools as picks and shovels.

If any form of small-scale mining is to survive in Washington, this petition needs to be stopped and some semblance of sanity injected into the process of mining regulation.  For those who are willing and motivated, a communication campaign to the Commission on this topic would be in order.  Their address is:

Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission
600 Capitol Way N.
Olympia, WA  98501-1091

Phone:  360-902-2267
Fax:  360-902-2448

Email:  commission@dfw.wa.gov

Online contact form:  http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/contact.html

The Trout Unlimited petition may be downloaded from the link below:

https://mega.nz/#!xZcECDrA!2C8oVUF5wHJGMvEher6400X0ZjW4oa3nQlyHCuB_c1A

Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission to Decide Motorized Suction Dredging Petition via Conference Call

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission has scheduled a conference call for 8:30 A.M. on January 5, 2018, to decide on a petition about motorized suction dredging.  The public may listen to the discussion on speakerphone at the Commission Office on the 5th floor of the Natural Resources Building, 1111 Washington Street SE, in Olympia, or at one of the Regional Offices.  Those planning to come to one of the offices to listen to the call are requested to contact WDFW Commission staff at (360) 902-2267 so they can ensure adequate space is available.

The only information I can find on the Commission website about this is:

The Commission will be briefed and consider changes to WAC 220-660 regarding motorized suction dredging.

WAC 220-660 covers just about everything having to do with projects in Washington waters.  WAC 220-660-300 covers mineral prospecting.

More information as it becomes available.

More Action Called For On The Reinhart Petition Before The Supreme Court

A follow-up alert from Dave Mack of The New 49'ers regarding the subject of the previous post:

First of all, I want to thank you for the response you provided to our recent Action Alert!  We received some very good feedback from the mining community and believe we have also received some additional positive traction carried forth by those through Face Book.

We apologize for such short notice but the Solicitor General’s brief came out late Wednesday night and there was concern that it would be part of the Supreme Court’s review process that Friday.  The good news is it was not reviewed at that time and is currently scheduled for review on January 5th, 2018.  This allows us time for a chance for additional action.

The review process, called a conference, is when the justices consider whether to grant cert on certain petitions. When a petition is conferenced, the justices can (1) deny the petition, (2) grant the petition, or (3) relist the petition (which means they don’t take action and mark it to be considered at another conference).  We have been advised, with the exception of the long conference after the summer break, the Court does not usually grant a cert unless a petition has been relisted. A relisted petition is one that has been scheduled for two consecutive conferences.

The really good news is that only four of the nine Justices are needed to vote in favor to grant the case to move forward.

What we are asking for is that each of you send in one letter to each of those justices likely to rule in favor to grant the Rinehart case on the basis of the facts of the case, the intent of congress, mining law and the actual question before the court. We only need to send in one letter but need to do it in a manner which ensures it arrives in time to have an effect before the conference.

Here is our sample letter that you can copy and paste, add your name and address and print out to mail in:

http://www.goldgold.com/sample-ltr-scotus.html

We are also recommending that you print out and enclose the formal letter that has been sent to Donald Trump by our attorney:

http://www.goldgold.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Letter-to-President-Trump-12-8-17.pdf

You can also create your own letter from these talking points, from what you already know, and just ask the court for the case to be heard.  Like I said earlier the federal government certainly gets in our way in some places, some states are determined to stop mineral development on the federal lands. This is especially true in California, Oregon and Washington.

We must create such a large commotion over this that the court will grant the Rinehart writ to be heard.  We are reaching out to all of the other mining organizations to develop a concentrated effort in this last big push.

For as long as we have been fighting to recover our mining rights, there has never been a more important time to make our voices heard. Our future, and to a large degree, America's future, hangs in the balance which very well might swing our way if we all make a lot of noise right now!

Thanks for all you can do,

Dave Mack

The New 49'er Legal Fund




The New 49er's, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

United States Solicitor General Tells Supreme Court To Not Review The Rinehart Case

According to an Action Alert from Dave Mack of California's New 49'ers gold prospecting organization, the Solicitor General of the United States has submitted a briefing to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The briefing states that the position of the United States is that the Court should not review the petition of Brandon Rinehart for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of California.

Mack goes on to say that if the Supreme Court accepts the Solicitor General's arguments, the results would be extremely damaging to the right of the mining community to operate on federal lands, not just in California, but everywhere.

Below is the text of the Action Alert together with links to the relevant documents and for sending comments to the White House and the Supreme Court.

We just found out that the Solicitor General has submitted a briefing to the U.S. Supreme Court which completely misrepresents what is at stake in the Rinehart case, and presents a completely false explanation of why the Supreme Court should not review the Rinehart case. This is hugely alarming since the Solicitor General is supposed to be on the side of “Making America Great Again."  Here is just one more reminder of how deep and pervasive the deep state is -- or "the swamp" as it is commonly referred to.

The following is a link to the Solicitor General's briefing to the Supreme Court. It was undoubtedly compiled by our worst enemies; the very same people who are attempting to bring Donald Trump down:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/16/16-970/22901/20171206191927741_16-970%20--%20Rinehart%20v%20California.PDF

At this point, it would seem as though our final hope is to bring this terrible injustice to President Trump's attention. The best way I can think of to do this is through a massive email program by so many people, that whoever manages the President's communications cannot ignore the message.  This is nearly the last opportunity we have to save our industry, folks!

Here is where you go to write a message to President Trump:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call

Please read the following formal letter that has been sent to Donald Trump by our attorney:

http://www.goldgold.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Letter-to-President-Trump-12-8-17.pdf

You can create your own talking points from what you already know, or by reading the letter just above, or just by reminding Mr. Trump that there is no way we will ever make America great again unless we open mineral development once again on the federal lands. While the federal government certainly gets in our way in some places, some States are determined to stop mineral development on the federal lands. This is especially true in California, Oregon and Washington.

Please copy and paste into your message the link just above which goes to our attorney's letter.

It might also be helpful if you send a copy of your message to the U.S. Supreme Court. You can find the email address here:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/contact/contact_pio.aspx

We must create such a large commotion over this that Mr. Trump or his Attorney General will immediately withdraw the existing briefing to the Supreme Court, and have a new briefing written by pro-mining, pro-America attorneys. There are plenty of these available in the private sector.

For as long as we have been fighting to recover our mining rights, there has never been a more important time to make our voices heard. Our future, and to a large degree, America's future, hangs in the balance which very well might swing our way if we all make a lot of noise right now!

Thanks for all you can do,

Dave Mack

The New 49'er Legal Fund

The New 49er's, 27 Davis Road, Happy Camp, California 96039, USA

Another New Geologic Map from Washington DNR

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has announced the release of a 1:24,000-scale geologic map of the Granite Falls quadrangle.

The new map can be downloaded for free by clicking the map image here.

To see all of the available geologic maps by Washington DNR, visit the link here, which is an online viewer application.

Washington DNR Publishes New Geologic 7.5-minute Quadrangle Map

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has announced the publication of a geologic map of the Shelton 7.5-minute quadrangle, Mason County, Washington.

This 1:24,000-scale map is the latest in the department's efforts to map the entire state at this scale.

The link to the map page online is here.  Clicking on the image will download the map to a .zip folder.

The Minerals and Mining Advisory Council and the Rise of the Modernized Mining District

Having written about the revitalization of mining districts in a past post, I was pleased to discover that an organization called the Minerals and Mining Advisory Council (MMAC) has undertaken the task of providing education and support for those miners wishing to organize and modernize the historical mining districts in their areas.

While the process is both more complicated and less straightforward than we might like to imagine, with the help of the MMAC it is altogether doable as evidenced by the fact that as of August 23, the MMAC had at least 30 modernized mining districts with enough pending that they expect to finish the year with about 200 organized mining districts.

In addition to the above figures, the modernized mining districts of the MMAC have so far taken back 5,568,000 acres of federal land to the benefit of the mining community.

In spite of these gains, much remains to be done.  For example, many areas (including Washington state) do not yet have any organized mining districts.  Mining districts, as the MMAC is structuring them, would put an end to such shenanigans as those I wrote about in my last post.

To learn more about the MMAC, their legislative and other initiatives, and how they can help you protect your rights as a miner, visit their website as linked above as well as their Facebook page where they post the latest updates.  And, above all else, get involved.

Let's put mining back in the hands of miners where it belongs.

Miners Take Note: Plans Afoot to Make Federal Lands in Washington's Okanogan County Permanently Off-Limits to Mining.

According to a news item in Friday's Everett Herald, Senator Patty Murray of Washington introduced legislation in Congress last May to ostensibly, "protect water, salmon and other natural resources in the upper watershed of the Methow Valley."

The bill, which was heard in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, is titled the "Methow Headwaters Protection Act of 2016" (S.2991) and would withdraw just over 340,000 acres of federal forest land in Okanogan County from "location, entry, and patent under the mining laws."

It appears that, should the legislative assault fail, the Forest Service is concocting an end-run around the existing law by taking administrative steps to shut down Okanogan County mining.  The Herald piece reports that Leslie Weldon, deputy chief of the Forest Service's national forest system and a witness in favor of Murry's bill at Thursday's hearing, plans to coordinate with the Bureau of Land Management in effecting a "temporary" withdrawal from mineral activity of the 340,000 acres in question.

Readers should be aware that these measures are likely only the first in a series, the objective of which is a complete ban on all mining and prospecting activities in Washington State.

Readers should also be aware that these measures are in direct conflict with Title 30 United States Code Section 21a which states, in pertinent part:

The Congress declares that it is the continuing policy of the Federal Government in the national interest to foster and encourage private enterprise in (1) the development of economically sound and stable domestic mining, minerals, metal and mineral reclamation industries, (2) the orderly and economic development of domestic mineral resources, reserves, and reclamation of metals and minerals to help assure satisfaction of industrial, security and environmental needs, (3) mining, mineral, and metallurgical research, including the use and recycling of scrap to promote the wise and efficient use of our natural and reclaimable mineral resources, and (4) the study and development of methods for the disposal, control, and reclamation of mineral waste products, and the reclamation of mined land, so as to lessen any adverse impact of mineral extraction and processing upon the physical environment that may result from mining or mineral activities.

How the "continuing policy of the Federal Government...to foster and encourage private enterprise in the development of economically sound and stable domestic mining, metal and mineral reclamation industries" is served by a complete ban on all mining activities on the public lands administered by the Forest Service and the BLM is a mystery to this writer.  Perhaps Senators Murray and Cantwell (S.2991's only cosponsor), together with Forest Service Deputy Chief Weldon, would care to explain?

How to Find an Abandoned Mining Claim in 9 Easy Steps

For those interested in having a mining claim of their very own, it helps to remember that claims are sometimes abandoned by their holders or forfeited for failure to comply with the requirements for maintaining them.

If you could get a list of recently abandoned and forfeited claims you might --  with a little research to confirm that no one else has already grabbed them -- find one you could file on and obtain for yourself.

Fortunately, such a list is available from the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  Better yet, you can get it on-line for free.  The BLM even has a free tutorial document that explains step-by-step how to go about customizing such a list to your geographical area of interest.  The link to the BLM tutorial document is:

http://www.blm.gov/lr2000/lr2000pubrpts/FrequentlyQueries/LR2000_How_to_use_action_codes-MC.pdf

As I discovered some differences between the current web pages and those described in the BLM tutorial, I have written out the steps below as I found them at present:

Step 1 - Connect to the LR2000 website at http://www.blm.gov/lr2000.

Step 2 - Click "Run Reports" on the main menu at the top left-hand side of the page.

Step 3 - Scroll to the bottom of the page and under "Public Mining Claims Reports" click "Pub MC Action Code."

Step 4 - On the page that appears, check the boxes for "Action Code," "County," and "Action Date." Then click the "Select Criteria" button at the bottom of the page.

Step 5 - Under "Mandatory Criteria," click the "Set" button next to "Admin State" and then click on the name of the state in the scrollbar box that administers the state you are interested in.  Then click the "Close" button next to "Admin State."  If your state is not listed, it is administered by another state.  States that administer more than one state and those they administer are WY (NE, WY), MT (MT, ND, SD), NM (KS, NM, OK, TX), and OR (OR, WA).  Since I am interested in finding abandoned claims in Washington, I chose "OREGON" as the Admin State.

Step 6 - Also under "Mandatory Criteria," click the "Set" button next to "Action Code" and then click on "631 - CLAIM ABANDONED/FORFEITED" in the scrollbar box.  Then click the "Close" button next to "Action Code."

Step 7 - Under "Optional Criteria," click the "Set" button next to "County" and then click on the name of the county you are interested in from the list in the scrollbar box.  Then click the "Close" button next to "County."  In this case, I chose "Chelan" as the county.

Step 8 - Also under "Optional Criteria," click the "Set" button next to "Action Date" and then click the down arrow at the right-hand end of the drop-down box labeled, "Please select an Operator."  Select "Between" and type the dates in the box labeled "Enter Action Date."  Since the deadline for renewing most mining claims is September 1, enter the two dates separated by a comma. In this example I entered, "09/01/2015, 01/01/2016" to get all the claims that closed between September 1, 2015 and January 1, 2016.  After entering the dates, be sure to click the green check-mark to the left of the box containing the dates to transfer them to the data box below the date entry box.  Finally, click the "Close" button next to "Action Date."

Step 9 - Now click the "Run Report" button at the bottom of the page.

You should see a pop-up box listing the criteria you selected.

If everything looks correct, click "OK" to run the report.  Otherwise, click "Cancel" to make any necessary changes to the information you entered in the previous steps.  If you clicked "OK," you should see a box that says, "Query in process.  Please wait."  After a few seconds the report will appear on your computer screen.  I suggest clicking the "Export to PDF" icon in the menu-bar at the top of the page as doing this will give you the full report as a down-loadable document.

That's it!  You now have a list of the mining claims that were abandoned or forfeited between the dates you entered in the report set-up form.  IMPORTANT:  BLM advises that it can take up to THREE MONTHS for closed claims to appear in their reports.  My advice would be to run reports frequently -- perhaps daily -- beginning on September 1 until at least December 1 to be sure you don't miss any claims.

Now that you know how to harness the power of the BLM's computers to locate potential mining claims, you can turn those otherwise unproductive winter months into a period of fruitful enterprise.  Happy prospecting!

Area Rivers Begin to Recede

Water monitoring stations operated by the United States Geological Survey report declining stream levels around the region.  A few examples, taken from the USGS Current Water Data for the Nation website, show this trend:

Up-to-date data for any of these rivers and many others is available from the site linked above.  Also, in the right-hand sidebar under the heading, "Stream Flow Information," are links to several sites that provide this type of information.  The USGS Water Alert site allows you to set up text or email alerts for various conditions on streams of interest.

With water levels dropping, placer mining season isn't far behind.  Use the resources mentioned above to determine when water conditions are optimal for your planned activity.

Gold, Gem, and Mineral Shows for the Rest of 2016

Following is a list of the gold, gem, and mineral shows in Washington and surrounding areas from May 1 through the rest of the year.  If you're aware of any I have missed, please provide information in the comments.

---------------------------------------------

April 30 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
May 1 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Everett Rock & Gem Club
63rd Annual Gem, Jewelry and Mineral Show

Free Admission
Disabled Access
Free Adjacent Parking

Everett Community College
Walt Price Student Fitness Center
2206 Tower Street
Everett, Washington

More information at www.everettrockclub.com

---------------------------------------------

June 11 and 12 10 a.m. 4 p.m.

GPAA Idaho Gold & Treasure Show

Expo Idaho
5610 N Glenwood Street
Garden City, Idaho  83714

Tickets:  www.goldprospectors.org

---------------------------------------------

June 18-20

Athol, Idaho
44th Annual Northwest Treasure Hunters Club Treasure Hunt

We are going back to Farragut State Park, one of the most beautiful places in the country. For more information, call or email.

Phone: Duncan (208)660-4852; clay (509)999-0692
Email: duncanb73@gmail.com

---------------------------------------------

August 26-28
PNW Miners Rally
Liberty, Washington