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They need to start finding money in the budget for the class action claims that are on the way for damages to dredgers over the past 5 plus years. Our next serious challenge if the supremes do no hear this case will come from the water board. JMHO
MM I agree with you, but meanwhile in Idaho they have completely, blatantly disregarded that very ruling. With threats of $60,000 per day of violation. Our newly elected Assemby and State Senate need to cowboy up and force the issue.
I seriously doubt anyone could get a damage claim for not being able to dredge. To do so you would have to prove there was X amount of gold waiting to be dredged and that you had a concrete plan in place to dredge that proven deposit. How many dredgers had proven their resource base before the moratorium? How many dredgers have ever proven their deposit?
Keep in mind that gold already mined is only proof that there was at one time valuable minerals on your claim. To prove your claim you must establish that there still is enough mineral to be mined to cause a prudent man to reasonably believe the proven deposit could be mined at a profit.
This is not a trick standard. It's been around for more than 150 years. Mining companies spend most of their money and man hours proving their deposits before they ever start to mine. It protects them from Government agencies obstructing their mining as well as allowing them to continue mining even in mineral withdrawals. If the company sells shares in their mine they have to prove the deposit to meet stock market rules. The SEC doesn't treat miners nicely when they find they can't back up their discovery proof.
IF you can prove the State kept you from mining proven resources you might have a case for lost opportunity. Making that into a class action case would require proving a whole class of people were similarly situated. In other words you would have to establish there was a class of dredgers that had proven their claims and planned to mine them before the moratorium. I haven't seen one able to make that claim yet. There may be some but they are not the ones who have joined the consolidated cases.
This should show small miners the value and importance of proving your claim's minerals before being challenged. In my opinion your money and time would be better spent proving your claims before any other regulations, studies or withdrawals happen. Only then can you threaten them with money pain.
If you want to protect your claims learn to perfect them. It's always been the law that there can be no "taking" when there is no established value to what was taken. This is the reason all those miner's "takings" lawsuits continue to fail. You must state that you have proof of your claim and be willing to provide verifiable evidence of the value of the deposit (minus the cost to mine it) before you can have any chance to win a "takings" lawsuit.
Heavy Pans
MM I agree with you, but meanwhile in Idaho they have completely, blatantly disregarded that very ruling. With threats of $60,000 per day of violation. Our newly elected Assemby and State Senate need to cowboy up and force the issue.
Great News We will miss all of those that didn't make it to the end like Jerry Hobbs and Dennis Robinett pictured with Frank Sullivan and I with the Karuk Sluice that we won and re-donated to the cause.
Yea there was a huge post on it when he wanted ideas for the pictures on it back in 2005 on 49ermikes. We sent him in the pics and he did the rest. I ended up winning it for $500+ and then Mike Higby & I turned around and gave it to Dave McCraken to continue making money with it. That pic was from 2006 and I can't tell you how much we made for donations even back then but it was a ton. Then Mike & I put in a couple days at a GPAA show in Redding and we raised a bunch more for the cause as well with some of the profits coming in from Armadillo Mining sales. In other words it has been a long hard fight and it's good to know that my donations along with all everyone's have been well spent