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Gold miners remove mercury, lead from California streams, rivers
(The following is a media release issued today by the AMERICAN MINING RIGHTS ASSOCIATION)
AMRA ...— American Mining Rights Association
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday Nov. 18, 2015
The American Mining Rights Association has recently launched an public awareness campaign to educate Californians about the facts and myths associated with mercury in California’s watershed.
“Our elected leaders in California are developing policy based on fallacy,” said AMRA President Shannon Poe. “They don’t have a good grasp on modern mining practices, and are making assumptions based on the myth that prospectors and small-scale miners are still dispersing mercury into our rivers and streams. Myths about mercury have been unscrupulously perpetuated by the environmental industry at the expense of California taxpayers.”
“While legacy mining operations at the turn of the century and earlier did use mercury, such is not the case today—an indisputable fact that both the state government and the environmental lobbyists have been far too slow to acknowledge,” Poe said. “In fact, modern-day gold miners do NOT use mercury but instead remove 98 percent of the mercury, and other toxic metals such as lead from old lead shot and fishing weights from our rivers and streams. Today’s suction dredge mining equipment is environmentally friendly and far less invasive than destructive methods used a century ago.”
“The government has also turned a blind eye to the fact that much of the mercury that exists in California rivers originates from the mineral cinnabar, which is where the old-timers obtained mercury in the first place,” Poe explained.
“Our state legislators don’t seem to be able to grasp the concept that much of California’s mercury was naturally formed and is contained in a mineral called cinnabar, which is prevalent in the state. When cinnabar breaks down through the natural process of erosion, it releases liquid mercury, or quick silver, into our rivers and streams,” Poe said. “It’s nature—not mining. Miners did not introduce mercury to the environment; the environment introduced miners to mercury. Cinnabar has always existed in nature.”
While the term “dredge” evokes images of huge, wooden crates, called bucket-line dredges, that scraped the bottoms of our river beds with large metal scoops or buckets, today’s dredges are much more environmentally friendly. In fact, they do not “dredge” at all even though they are still called a dredge. Small-scale suction dredges could more accurately be described as a portable underwater vacuum cleaner or “wet-vac,” used to suck heavy metals such as gold, mercury and lead from the bottoms of riverbeds, Poe said.
Meanwhile, many so-called environmental groups are bilking taxpayers. Groups such as the Sierra Fund and the Center for Biological Diversity have allegedly made millions of dollars by using the Equal Access to Justice Act and the Endangered Species Act to sue government agencies that are working in collusion with them, Poe said.
“The way this scam works is that the environmental groups target a species on the ever-growing Endangered Species List. Then, these groups collude with the federal or state agencies to shut down access to public lands or ban mining and other primary industries such as timber and agriculture. How this works is that the environmental groups get paid through the Equal Access to Justice Act to pay attorneys on their payroll for suing the government agencies for violating the Endangered Species Act or another type of environmental law,” Poe said.
Both the Sierra Fund and the Center for Biological Diversity are listed in sue-and-settle cases, or friendly lawsuits, documented in a 54-page report, “Sue and Settle, Regulating Behind Closed Doors,” published in 2013 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Report. Sue-and-settle cases have also been under investigation in Washington. D.C.
“What makes matters worse is that the state of California has illegally placed a de facto ban on suction dredge mining when the California Superior Court has ruled that the state does not have the authority to override the federal Mining Law of 1872, when it comes to mining on public lands in the western United States,” Poe said.
“After years of legal wrangling, California Superior Court Judge Gilbert Ochoa ruled in January 2015 that the federal mining law trumps state law under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and that California legislators have defied the supreme law of the land by imposing a ban on suction dredge mining. The federal Mining Law of 1872 states that miners have the right to prospect and mine for gold and other minerals on public lands owned not by the federal government as many mistakenly believe but by the people of the United States,” Poe said.
“Ironically, some environmental groups are now receiving millions of dollars in government grants to dredge for these same toxic metals—something that thousands of suction dredge miners were doing for free before California imposed an illegal ban on dredging. And, these so-called environmental groups are also getting paid by California taxpayers to mine gold, a byproduct of the mercury removal programs,” Poe said.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce “Sue and Settle, Regulating Behind Closed Doors” report: https://www.uschamber.com/…/fi…/SUEANDSETTLEREPORT-Final.pdf
For more information, please contact:
American Mining Rights Association is a national non-profit organization, locally based in California.
AMRA President Shannon Poe
Phone: (209) 878-3910 (office)
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.americanminingrights.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanminingrights
American Mining Rights Association
PMB #607, 6386 Greeley Hill Rd
Coulterville, CA 95311
Gold miners remove mercury, lead from California streams, rivers
(The following is a media release issued today by the AMERICAN MINING RIGHTS ASSOCIATION)
AMRA ...— American Mining Rights Association
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday Nov. 18, 2015
The American Mining Rights Association has recently launched an public awareness campaign to educate Californians about the facts and myths associated with mercury in California’s watershed.
“Our elected leaders in California are developing policy based on fallacy,” said AMRA President Shannon Poe. “They don’t have a good grasp on modern mining practices, and are making assumptions based on the myth that prospectors and small-scale miners are still dispersing mercury into our rivers and streams. Myths about mercury have been unscrupulously perpetuated by the environmental industry at the expense of California taxpayers.”
“While legacy mining operations at the turn of the century and earlier did use mercury, such is not the case today—an indisputable fact that both the state government and the environmental lobbyists have been far too slow to acknowledge,” Poe said. “In fact, modern-day gold miners do NOT use mercury but instead remove 98 percent of the mercury, and other toxic metals such as lead from old lead shot and fishing weights from our rivers and streams. Today’s suction dredge mining equipment is environmentally friendly and far less invasive than destructive methods used a century ago.”
“The government has also turned a blind eye to the fact that much of the mercury that exists in California rivers originates from the mineral cinnabar, which is where the old-timers obtained mercury in the first place,” Poe explained.
“Our state legislators don’t seem to be able to grasp the concept that much of California’s mercury was naturally formed and is contained in a mineral called cinnabar, which is prevalent in the state. When cinnabar breaks down through the natural process of erosion, it releases liquid mercury, or quick silver, into our rivers and streams,” Poe said. “It’s nature—not mining. Miners did not introduce mercury to the environment; the environment introduced miners to mercury. Cinnabar has always existed in nature.”
While the term “dredge” evokes images of huge, wooden crates, called bucket-line dredges, that scraped the bottoms of our river beds with large metal scoops or buckets, today’s dredges are much more environmentally friendly. In fact, they do not “dredge” at all even though they are still called a dredge. Small-scale suction dredges could more accurately be described as a portable underwater vacuum cleaner or “wet-vac,” used to suck heavy metals such as gold, mercury and lead from the bottoms of riverbeds, Poe said.
Meanwhile, many so-called environmental groups are bilking taxpayers. Groups such as the Sierra Fund and the Center for Biological Diversity have allegedly made millions of dollars by using the Equal Access to Justice Act and the Endangered Species Act to sue government agencies that are working in collusion with them, Poe said.
“The way this scam works is that the environmental groups target a species on the ever-growing Endangered Species List. Then, these groups collude with the federal or state agencies to shut down access to public lands or ban mining and other primary industries such as timber and agriculture. How this works is that the environmental groups get paid through the Equal Access to Justice Act to pay attorneys on their payroll for suing the government agencies for violating the Endangered Species Act or another type of environmental law,” Poe said.
Both the Sierra Fund and the Center for Biological Diversity are listed in sue-and-settle cases, or friendly lawsuits, documented in a 54-page report, “Sue and Settle, Regulating Behind Closed Doors,” published in 2013 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Report. Sue-and-settle cases have also been under investigation in Washington. D.C.
“What makes matters worse is that the state of California has illegally placed a de facto ban on suction dredge mining when the California Superior Court has ruled that the state does not have the authority to override the federal Mining Law of 1872, when it comes to mining on public lands in the western United States,” Poe said.
“After years of legal wrangling, California Superior Court Judge Gilbert Ochoa ruled in January 2015 that the federal mining law trumps state law under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and that California legislators have defied the supreme law of the land by imposing a ban on suction dredge mining. The federal Mining Law of 1872 states that miners have the right to prospect and mine for gold and other minerals on public lands owned not by the federal government as many mistakenly believe but by the people of the United States,” Poe said.
“Ironically, some environmental groups are now receiving millions of dollars in government grants to dredge for these same toxic metals—something that thousands of suction dredge miners were doing for free before California imposed an illegal ban on dredging. And, these so-called environmental groups are also getting paid by California taxpayers to mine gold, a byproduct of the mercury removal programs,” Poe said.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce “Sue and Settle, Regulating Behind Closed Doors” report: https://www.uschamber.com/…/fi…/SUEANDSETTLEREPORT-Final.pdf
For more information, please contact:
American Mining Rights Association is a national non-profit organization, locally based in California.
AMRA President Shannon Poe
Phone: (209) 878-3910 (office)
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.americanminingrights.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanminingrights
American Mining Rights Association
PMB #607, 6386 Greeley Hill Rd
Coulterville, CA 95311
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, what would go along nicely with this is; a real live example showing what we are saying. A working model that shows ""x amount being introduced into the upstream side followed by "x" amount being extracted on the downstream. The Capital lawn would be a good unveiling location. Build it with clear see thru hoses, clear sluice bed, and no breaks in filming. Show the uninformed public that inside the pump and hoses is not a monster that chews up fish and spits out evil mercury. This model would be invaluable as a demonstration piece at the various public events, hearings etc. A Picture is worth a thousand words. It could be used to make a video that shows undeniable proof of what we are saying. If nothing else we have something tangible out there in social media land that can be readily referenced when needed. We don't have any visuals as it is, just words. Words that are consistently being twisted and spun in a manner that works more for their agenda.
