Beach Mining Rules Effective October 9 -- HPA REQUIRED!

The new beach mining rules adopted by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission on August 11 will take effect on Sunday, October 9, 2011, according to the Southwest Region Office.

Remember: WDFW still requires you to obtain a separate HPA for beach mining activities conducted under the new WAC rules as the Gold and Fish Pamphlet does not apply to the ocean beaches. From the relevant WDFW webpage:

Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission has adopted rules that allow prospecting on ocean beaches. Because that agency adopted their own rules about beach prospecting, I don't need a permit from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, do I? Yes. The rules adopted by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission allowing certain beach prospecting activities are in addition to WDFW's permitting requirements. Because prospecting in marine waters is not covered by the Gold and Fish pamphlet, you must apply for, and be issued, an individual HPA to legally prospect on ocean beaches.

If you are planning on doing any beach prospecting this fall, you should apply for your HPA as soon as possible as some time is involved in WDFW issuing these permits.  The necessary application and instructions are available online at http://www.epermitting.org/.

Make Your Own Black Sand Magnet

You can make your own black sand magnet for aiding in gold recovery using a plastic 35mm film cassette can, a piece of wire, and a magnet that will fit inside the film can.

To make mine, I used a small but powerful magnet I had in my junk box. Although it has a convenient loop at one end for attaching the wire, you may need to get a bit creative if your magnet has a different design. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the film can just large enough for the wire to pass through. The parts ready for assembly are shown below:

(Note: I recommend drilling the hole in the cap instead of in the bottom of the film can as with the latter arrangement very fine particles of black sand work their way under the cap and onto the magnet itself.)

With the wire pushed through the drilled hole in the film can, form a loop in it as shown below so that the magnet can be raised and lowered inside the can:

Attach the cap to the can to complete the assembly as shown below:

To use your new magnet, spread your black-sand-containing concentrate more-or-less evenly over the bottom of a gold pan under an inch or so of water. Keep the magnet above the concentrate while moving it in a circular motion. If you get the magnet too low or into the sand, the magnetic particles will clump and can entrap pieces of gold. As you work, you will notice the concentrate becoming lighter in color in the areas where the magnetic black sand particles have been removed.

Every few moments, withdraw the magnet from the concentrate pan. You will notice an accumulation of black sand on the bottom of the film container.

Next, position the magnet in the water in a second gold pan which will serve to collect the magnetic sand removed from the concentrate pan. Release the black sand into the pan by pulling up on the wire to raise the magnet inside the film can.

Each time you drop a load of black sand into the second gold pan, you should check it to be sure no gold particles were trapped within it. When you are satisfied that you have only black sand in the pan, you can dispose of that material as you normally do with your tailings. The second pan should now be empty (except for the water) and ready to receive the next load of black sand.

When you are no longer getting black sand on the magnet assembly from your concentrate pan, you are finished with this stage of the separation process. You will probably notice a considerable reduction in the amount of concentrate remaining in your pan, depending on how much magnetic black sand it contained, and may even see some gold pieces amid the remaining material, as on the right and bottom of the image below:

As always, happy prospecting!

New Publications From WDGER

The Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources has announced the following publications:

Information Circular 112.  Inactive and abandoned mine lands--Ruby Hill Mining District, Okanogan County, Washington, by F. E. Wolff, D. T. McKay, and D. K. Norman. 2011. 35 p. (Available online only, at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ger_ic112_iaml_ruby_hill.pdf [59.8 MB])

Also, please be aware of corrections to the following publication:

Open File Report 2010-3 [revised 2011].  Geologic map of the Skokomish Valley and Union 7.5-minute quadrangles, Mason County, Washington, by Michael Polenz, J. L. Czajkowski, Gabriel Legorreta Paulin, T. A. Contreras, B. A. Miller, M. E. Martin, T. J. Walsh, R. L. Logan, R. J. Carson, C. N. Johnson, R. H. Skov, S. A. Mahan, and C. R. Cohan. 2010 [revised 2011]. 42 x 36 in. color sheet, scale 1:24,000, with 21 p. text. (Available online only, at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ger_ofr2010-3_geol_map_skokomish_valley_union_24k.zip [38.2 MB])

Errata for Open File Report 2010-3:  The name of Holocene ‘alluvium’ (units Qa(m) and Qo(am)) was changed to ‘marine deltaic alluvium’ to distinguish it from unit Qa. The unit labels and colors of units Qoa (Holocene to latest Pleistocene alluvium) and Qao (uppermost Olympic-source recessional outwash) were inadvertently switched on the map legend. This has been corrected. Kasper van Wijk has been added as fourth author to Lamb (2009). Corrections were made to the online file on August 8, 2011.

Beach Mining Rules Available

As reported here, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission approved small-scale prospecting and placer mining in the Seashore Conservation Area on Washington's ocean beaches at their meeting in Wenatchee on August 11.

Washington State Miner has just received from Parks and Recreation a copy of the rules as passed by the Commission at that meeting.  The text of the rules may be accessed as a .pdf file at the link here.

According to the source at Parks and Recreation, they do not yet have an exact date when the rules will go into effect but state it should be in mid- to late-September.

More information as it becomes available.

Beach Mining Approved by Parks and Recreation Commission

On August 11 in Wenatchee the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission voted to approve small-scale prospecting and placer mining on ocean beaches in the Seashore Conservation Area.

The rules, which are yet to be posted on the Chapter 352-37 WAC site, are reported to go into effect about the middle of September.  When published, the new mining rules will be designated WAC 352-37-340 and may be located at the link above.

Washington State Miner will continue to monitor the WAC site and report when the rules are posted.

Important MineCache Update

An important update regarding the MineCache plug-in for Google Earth (see the previous post here) is that selecting "BLM Mine Claim Records" for either active or closed claims now retrieves data directly from the BLM's LR2000 system instead of from the GeoCommunicator system as previously. This means that MineCache now has access to nearly 3.4 million claim records instead of the 1.6 million available through GeoCommunicator. The names of the claims appear in yellow boxes outlining the sections or fractions thereof in which the claims are located. As before, clicking on a claim's name opens an information window from which you may access the complete LR2000 report.

Beach Mining Rules Being Developed

The latest word on soon-to-be-allowed small scale beach mining (mentioned previously here, here, here, here, and here) is that State Parks is working on a draft of the rules and will hold a rule-making hearing on this subject at the Parks Commission meeting in Wenatchee on August 11th.

In the meantime, a draft of the proposed rules can be downloaded as a .pdf file from the link here.

Sneak Attack Continues RE: HPA Fee Bill

As posted here on Monday, a public hearing on SSB 5862, the substitute HPA fee bill, was held on Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Ways & Means.

We now learn, via the Resources Coalition and Bruce Beatty, that a second substitute bill (P2SSB 5862) has been proposed as the result of a meeting between the Governor's Office and some "HPA program Stakeholders" and from which meeting the Small Scale Mineral Prospecting and Mining Community was excluded.

It is important to read the text of this new legislation which may be downloaded as a PDF file here. (Note: This file will open in a pdf reader although it does not have a .pdf extension. You may have to manually select your pdf reader in order to view this file.) But, in summary, the bill is poorly written and, if enacted, would severely restrict, if not eliminate, one's ability to prospect or mine in this state.

Accordingly, here is a link to a somewhat lengthy list of talking points to use when contacting the government departments listed below: P2SSB 5862Talking Points PDF

Senate Committee on Ways & Means - to request that this bill not be allowed to go forward and cite your concerns.

Governor's Office - to ask why was the Small Scale Mineral Prospecting and Mining community was not a part of her meetings regarding this legislation and cite your concerns.

Your Senator and Representative - to inform them of this legislation and of your concerns. Request that they take whatever steps that they can to stop this legislation.

Your Local County, City, and Dike Districts - to inform them of this legislation. They need to know your position as a taxpayer who will ultimately end up paying for this legislation. Just because they may not obtain an HPA or FPA, they will be on the hook for prosecuting violators.

Furthermore, if you wish to call or write the Governor's Office, the contact information is listed below:

Phone: 360-902-4111

Fax: 360-753-4110

Mailing Address:

Governor Chris Gregoire
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Sneak Attack Hearing On HPA Fee Bill Tomorrow In Olympia - UPDATED!

UPDATE 4/19/11 -- If you need them, here are some talking points in opposition to SSB 5862 from Bruce Beatty:

1. The bill was poorly haphazardly created containing obvious errors;
a) 2 definitions for "sandbar"
b) Section 103 states that the department "shall charge a one hundred fifty dollar submittal fee and a processing fee.." but the next paragraph states that "The department shall charge a seventy-five dollar submittal fee for single site low complexity hydraulic project permits"
c) Bill summaries and Fiscal notes state that the Gold and Fish Pamplet HPA's are exempt from fee's, but there is no language in the bill to support these statements.
d) Establishes a fee structure, then provides DFW the authority to reduce fee's based upon circumstances and at "it's discretion." There is no specific provision for reimbursement, (fee's must be paid in advance) and there is no check or balance as to whom gets the reduced fee allowing favoritism or Fraud.

2. This legislation will expand WDFW's regulatory authority. In addition to being required below the Ordinary High Water Line, HPA's will be required for certain activities (A dike, levee, bridge, shoreline or streambank protection project (new definition), or mineral prospecting and mining) in the channel migration zone (new definition), one hundred year floodplain (new definition), or within two hundred feet landward of the ordinary high water line.

3. Projects that expend enormous amounts of time, resources and $money$, such as fish passage barrier and fish habitat enhancement projects are exempted from all fees. The organizations who fall under this category already receive a Streamlined Permit process under RCW 77.55.181, and in most cases receive funding through grants. Permits issued under this statute are already exempted from permits and fee's by local governments.

4. The legislation makes no provisions that would allow an individual to obtain a permit for less than a five year term at a reduced fee.

5. The department has told the stakeholders that these permits will be given for 5 years. This legislation does not modify the length that a permit will be issued. It states that permits will be issued for up to 5 years, which leaves the length of a permit up to the discretion of the department.

6. The title of this statute will change to the "Hydraulic Code" from "Construction projects in state waters" which will forever change what the original intent of this legislation was when established in 1943.

7. Establishes a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation. This is up from $100 per day and is in addition the the Gross Misdemeanor Charge, punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a $5,000 fine. The lowest penalty proposed is $2,500.

8. There will not be an increase to revenue as the largest users of the program are State Agencies(WDNR, WDOT, & WDFW).

9. There will be an INCREASE of expenditures by the State, the Agencies, and by Counties. Take a look at the fiscal notes and notice the amount that will be required for capital expenditures and the number of additional employee's that must be hired. This is not a reduction of government or streamlining.

Please pass this information on to all who use or may use the HPA program. This includes those with Bulkheads, Marina's or Landscape management plans that select fish for coverage under such a plan and to those who fall under the Forest Practices Permit.

If you are able to attend the public hearings, please do so, and do not forget to sign in and mark your position (CON).

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

The HPA Fee bill (SB 5862 and HB 2008) has arrived in a new incarnation called SSB 5862 and -- SURPRISE! -- is scheduled for a public hearing TOMORROW before the Senate Committee on Ways & Means.

As of this writing, the time and place are 2:30 P.M. in the J. A. Cherberg Building, Senate Hearing Room 4 in Olympia.

The text of the bill may be downloaded from the link: SSB 5862, titled AN ACT Relating to the administration of natural resources programs.

The link for the Legislative Bill Information Website page for this bill is here.

If you cannot attend the hearing, you may send comments via phone or email to the committee members using the information at the link here. Click on each committee member's name to be taken to their homepage where an email link is available.

More news as it develops.

Presentation on Beach Mining Pilot Program Cancelled

Word just in from Olympia is that the presentation on the Ocean Beach Mining Pilot Program scheduled for 8:00 A.M. tomorrow before the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee by WDFW and the State Parks and Recreation Commission has been canceled. No word yet on when it might be rescheduled but WSM will keep you posted.

For background information on this subject, see my earlier post here.

Upcoming Legislation Would Restore Wilderness Study, Roadless Areas to Multiple Use Status

Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California's 22nd District plans to introduce the "Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act¹” in the near future. The purpose of this legislation is to "release all Wilderness Study Areas and Inventoried Roadless Areas, which have been recommended as not suitable for wilderness by the Bureau of Land Management or the United State(s) Forest Service, and direct that they be managed for multiple use.²" The effect, if this bill becomes law, would be to open more land for prospecting and mining as well as for other public uses.

At present, advocates of this bill are requesting that organizations (not individuals) send an email to Ben McFarland at Congressman McCarthy's office (benjamin.mcfarland@mail.house.gov) asking him to add the organization's name to the list of supporters and to also ask their Congressperson to co-sponsor this legislation. After contacting their Congressperson's office, they can download and send them this "Dear Colleague" letter.

More documentation in .pdf format regarding this bill:

Overview of the bill
Text of the bill

More information as it becomes available.

¹ Forwarded email from Chris Horgan at "Save the Trails"
² Ibid.

House Committee to Hear Presentation on Beach Mining Pilot Program

The latest development in the long-in-coming opportunity to mine gold at Washington's ocean beaches will be on April 8 before the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee. According to the current agenda, this work session will include a "(j)oint presentation by the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Parks and Recreation Commission on the findings of the Small Scale Mining and Prospecting on Ocean Beaches Pilot Program." As this meeting is not open for public testimony, I mention it here for information only.

For some background on the "Beach Mining Pilot Program," see my earlier posts here, here, and here.

Washington State Miner will continue to follow and report on this story.