EASTERN OREGON
MINING ASSOCIATION
APRIL 2024
VOLUME 415
YOUR MEMBERSHIP IS IMPORTANT!
MEMBERSHIPS ARE DUE IN JANUARY. THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST NEWSLETTER Please send your dues to: EOMA, PO Box 932, Baker City, OR 97814. You can also pay with a credit card on our website: eoma.us Or you can pay at the meeting. Your support is appreciated!
APRIL 5th MEETING AT ELK CREEK ENTERPRISES
The EOMA monthly meeting is at the Elk Creek Enterprises saw shop located at 890 Elm Street in Baker City. The Board Meeting will begin at 6:00 PM and the general meeting follows at 6:30 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend these meetings. There is time for discussing mining and getting to know other miners. We will give away a 1 oz. silver medallion at the end of the meeting.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Forest Service Supervisor Shaun McKinney has repeatedly stated at public meetings about the Blue Mountain Plan revision, that “the Plan does not close roads.” What little information that has been released so far, makes this statement misleading to say the least.
The information I have heard so far for the Wallowa-Whitman is that the plan proposes thousands of acres of new Backcountry non-motorized. If the areas are non-motorized, the roads will immediately be closed when the Plan is approved. New wilderness areas are also proposed. The definition of wilderness is “no motorized access allowed”. Again, when the Plan is approved, roads will immediately be closed.
And if the decision is to change our forest into a closed forest, there will be a Travel Management Plan that will say any road not designated an open Forest System Road will also be closed. So, if you have been wondering if the Plan will close roads, the answer is yes. If you have been wondering if the Plan will adversely affect miners, the answer is also yes. Use and access to the forest will be restricted unless you have permission from the Forest Service.
MSHA TRAINING 2024-Last Annual Refresher is April 10
Trent Hahn is conducting our MSHA classes again this year. Classes will begin at 8:00AM and will be held at the Elk Creek Enterprises saw shop at 890 Elm Street in Baker City.
Please call Jan Alexander at 541-446-3413 to register for the April 10th refresher class.
DO YOU WANT YOUR NEWSLETTER DELIVERED BY MAIL OR BY E-MAIL?
With the cost of postage going up, we are looking at options for mailing the newsletter. If you would rather have your newsletter delivered in the mail box that is fine. If you would prefer to have it by e-mail, that will save EOMA postage each month. We will be refining our mailing list next month. Send a message to alxk@ortelco.net if you want to receive the newsletter by e-mail.
FOREST ACCESS FOR ALL-FAFA
FAFA Banquet – We will be holding our annual FAFA Banquet April 27th at the Elks Club in Baker. If you would like to enjoy an evening of socializing, fund raising, and a little learning regarding the planned closure of the Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur National Forests please join us. Contact Don George 541 632 6736 or Tork Ballard 541 523 4209
POWDER MINING PROJECTS EIS-Jan Alexander
Ken and I were able to talk to Wallowa-Whitman Forest Supervisor Shaun McKinney at the open house the Forest Service had in Baker City on March 12, 2024. We asked Shaun why this NEPA document has taken so long to get a final out to the public.
We explained to Shaun that in March of 2018, a scoping document was sent out to the public. The draft EIS was expected July 2018 and the final EIS was expected December 2018. But then, nothing happened for 4 years.
The DEIS NOA was finally published in the Federal Register 6/18/2022. The draft EIS was published with a 45 day comment period. Many of the 22 miners wrote comments concerning inaccuracies about their proposed Plans of Operation. They never got any replies, so they remained hopeful that the EIS project descriptions had been changed. Again, it’s been 2 years and nothing has happened.
Throughout these years the SOPA shows work “in progress” and the most recent one shows an expected decision date of 07/2024 and implementation date of 9/2024. This is too late for any work this season. Kristine Harper, the Wallowa-Whitman Deputy Forest Supervisor, told me back in February that the EIS had just been reviewed again by the Regional Office in Portland and they were sending it again to Washington DC for approval to publish.
Shaun said we were about “over the finish line” and he expected to have the document out in final form soon.
THE BLM’S QUIET WAR ON PRECIOUS METALS-Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge
The Bureau of Land Management is a federal agency that controls 245 million acres of land and controls 30% of the country’s mineral resources. On the East Coast, it manages little land but manages an enormous share of Western states. It owns over half of Oregon and two-thirds of Nevada.
First, Biden is designating more and more federal land as national monuments. National monuments are kind of halfway between national parks that are set aside for conservation and limited recreational activities such as hiking and the normal federal land managed by the BLM which is generally open to hiking, hunting, and sometimes mining and logging.
The other step the BLM is pursuing that might cut off precious metals production is the proposal of the innocuously named “Public Lands Rule.” The rule, which the BLM plans to soon implement would in the BLM’s own words “ensure that the BLM can respond to these pressures, managing for healthy lands today so that it can deliver its multiple-use mission now and in the future — to ensure the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.” In practical terms, experts have pointed out this would mean that BLM would shift from trying to balance different uses of land- hiking, hunting, fish, and mining- to putting environmentalists’ concerns first.
Because the rule would make it easier for the federal government to close lands to mining, it has faced opposition from Western states including the governors of Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Biden’s first (and perhaps last?) term is nearing its end, but if he has a second term, his administration will likely ramp up opposition to precious metals mining.
GOLD NANOPARTICLES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ANTIBIOTICS-Mining.com
In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the authors demonstrated the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of the nanoparticles on the teeth and wounded skin of rats and mice, eliminating the biofilms in as little as one minute and outperforming common antimicrobials.
Gold is nontoxic and readily converts energy from light sources into heat, making it a prime candidate for photothermal therapy, a strategy that utilizes the heat from nanoparticles to kill nearby pathogens.
GOLD BEANS ALL THE RAGE WITH CHINA’S GEN Z AS DEFLATION BITES- Mining.com
With China’s deflation at its worst in 15 years, a volatile stock market and bank interest rates too low for her liking, 18-year-old Tina Hong is placing her financial security in gold beans.
Weighing as little as one gram, the beans — and other forms of gold jewelry — are increasingly viewed as the safest investment bet for young Chinese in an era of economic uncertainty.
ALASKA GOVERNOR MIKE DUNLEVY CALLED ON PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN TO UPDATE AND STREAMLINE THE US MINE PERMITTING PROCESS- Ernest Scheyder; Editing by David Gregorio)
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy called on President Joe Biden on Wednesday to update and streamline the US mine permitting process in order to boost domestic production of critical minerals and reduce dependence on foreign nations.
The push echoes calls from the mining industry for clarity on how permits can be obtained for mines that produce copper, lithium and other energy transition minerals. Executives have long complained the US process can be complex, expensive and opaque due in part to a federal mining law enacted in 1872.
“Our message to the Biden administration is, ‘Do everything you can to do everything here in America. Get your permitting processes streamlined,’” Dunleavy told Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.
It is “somewhat nonsensical,” the governor said, that Biden has pushed for greater adoption of electric vehicles – which require far more critical minerals to build than internal combustion engines – but has blocked Northern Dynasty’s Pebble copper and gold mining project. “If we don’t get our permitting processes together, if we don’t start to use data and science again instead of emotion, this chaos is going to continue,” he said.
Dunleavy sued Biden last week for the president’s 2023 decision to block Pebble. The suit seeks more than $700 billion, an amount that the governor says the state will lose in economic development without the mine. Dunleavy tried unsuccessfully last year to have the US Supreme Court overturn Biden. Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty itself sued Biden on Monday.
The proposed Pebble mine would have “unacceptable and adverse effects on certain salmon fishery areas” in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, the US Environmental Protection Agency said last year.
Dunleavy said he believes the mine and the state’s salmon fishers can co-exist. “The science is there to be able to develop the mine responsibly,” he said. “We can put the safeguards in, and that’s why I’m a supporter.”
Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Alaska’s two Republican US Senators, oppose Pebble, which Dunleavy acknowledged is a hindrance.
“However, my job as the governor is to advocate for our state, advocate for the development of our state lands or minerals, and advocate for the prosperity of our people,” he said.
FLEET SPACE HAS DESIGNED AND MANUFACTURED ITS OWN SEISMIC SENSORS-Fleet Space
Fleet Space has designed and manufactured its own seismic sensors called Geodes. An Adelaide, Australia-based space technology company is revolutionizing mineral exploration by delivering 3D subsurface models in days, dramatically accelerating the acquisition and processing of geophysical data used for the selection of drill targets.
Fleet Space Technologies started off in 2015 as a satellite company focusing on industrial IOT solutions such as monitoring oil pipelines, offshore wind turbines, and hydroelectric power lines in remote locations before discovering a profound application in the mining and exploration industry. “The problem with traditional surveying methods is the time it takes to collect, process and deliver the data to a mining company,” said Fleet Space’s Chief Revenue Officer, Kevin Ramani. “An array of geophones in the field would sit in the ground for weeks or even months collecting data and then be shipped to a geophysics company where the data would be downloaded, processed and returned to the customer on a flash drive, which is a very antiquated customer experience.”
EXOSPHERE is an end-to-end mineral exploration technology that helps exploration companies reduce the time and resources needed to locate critical mineral deposits. Fleet Space saw an opportunity to use its satellite constellation in low Earth orbit to collect the data in near real-time without having to remove seismic sensors from the field. Then, the company found that by combining satellite connectivity with Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) – a low-impact technology for collecting passive seismic data – a solution could be created that delivers subsurface insights to exploration companies in near real-time anywhere on the planet.
“ANT listens to the sound that’s made by the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates and the general hum of the earth as it passes through the subsurface structures at different velocities,” explained Ramani. “The data from the noise is used to generate a 3D image so it’s almost like an ultrasound of the ground that geologists can use to identify fault lines, alteration zones and other geological structures.”
From there, Fleet Space designed and manufactured its patented seismic sensors (Geodes) which bring together the latest advances in ANT, edge computing, and satellite connectivity to deliver 3D subsurface models of survey areas in days for clients around the world. Today, Fleet Space’s end-to-end mineral exploration technology called ExoSphere has been used to conduct over 250 surveys across five continents for over 35 mining companies, including Rio Tinto, Core Lithium, and Barrick Gold. Instead of taking weeks to process the data, Fleet Space can turn around a 3D model within days, allowing customers to make data-driven decisions while the Geodes and crews are still in the field.
EOMA ADVERTISING AND SALE LISTINGS
WANTED MINING PROPERTY (16)
I would like to rent/lease/lease with option to buy property that may be productive for metal detecting and mining. Especially areas with tailings like the Powder River near Sumpter, or other local areas. Thanks, Johnny West. Email: jwestboise@gmail.com
WANTED-GOLD
Gold Specimens and Gold nuggets, mostly from Oregon mines. Fair prices paid. Also selling Gold nugget jewelry, specimens, nuggets and more. For an interesting and informative experience explore www.northernnevadagold.com Call Robert 775-455-6470
PRICE REDUCED-SIMPSON AND LUCKY PLACER CLAIMS FOR SALE
The Simpson is an 80-acre association placer and must be quit-claimed to a group of four miners. The Lucky group is composed of three 20-acre claims. These can be purchased by one miner. Both claim groups are covered by approved Plans of Operation and both are located on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
My health is forcing me to sell these claims. Give me a call if you are interested and please make me an offer. Call Dave at 810-523-7313.
MINING EQUIPMENT FOR SALE
Equipment located in Baker City:
Small trommel, feeder/grizzly, infeed conveyor, Honda pump, 20KW generator, 3” flat hose, sluice
Commercial Sized trommel, feeder, stacker, pump (has cracked housing) sluice
Also, scraper, Conex boxes, clean-up table, road runner screen, screen, diesel tank and pump, army trailer, two slurry pumps, a Honda pump, clean-up room equipment, and additional flat hose.
Equipment located on Connor Creek:
Feeder
Additional flat hose
I can send pictures and can provide details on this equipment. I am willing to discuss offers. Call Bill at 503-781-4393. E-mail me at dei@teleport.com.
TEST TROMMEL FOR SALE-$1500
This unit is mounted on a trailer and can easily be moved into a site for testing the deposit. Contact Bob at firebasebob@hotmail.com.
I can e-mail you pictures.
WANTED-MINERS TO PARTICIPATE IN A NEW TV SHOW WITH DAVE TURIN-Johnny West (ca)
Because of my ad in our EOMA Newsletter, I received an Email from a lady in London, England.
Her name is Lizzie Jenkins, and she is an Assistant Producer for www.raw.co.uk.
My understanding is her company films and produces the TV show “Gold Rush” on the Discovery Channel.
Her company is starting a new TV show with Dave Turin, and they are looking for miners that are testing mining property, and could use Dave’s help. I believe the property would need to be fully permitted for testing/mining. So, if any miners would consider getting help from Dave Turin, please contact Lizzie to get the complete details, and make sure it is something you would like to do.
Here is Lizzie’s contact information:
Lizzie Jenkins
Assistant Producer
Third Floor, 13-21 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3LT
Tel: + 44 (0) 207 456 0800 | Mob: +44 7769 296 581
www.raw.co.uk
UK Company Reg. 4305751
VAT: 297 4286 51
RAW TV SHOW IS LOOKING FOR MINERS WHO WANT TO INCREASE GOLD RECOVERY- Rhys Towse Producer at Raw TV –
Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge’s Mine Rescue is looking for gold mines Freddy and Juan can visit in 2024 to see if they can help improve gold recovery.
If you are interested, please call Office: +44 (0)207 456 0800
EOMA members who have participated in “Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge’s Mine Rescue” report a very positive experience. Miners who do not have the resources to pay for equipment upgrades are not under obligation to pay.
MINERS WANTING TO PARTICIPATE IN EITHER PROGRAM IN OREGON ARE ENCOURAGED TO HAVE PERMITTING IN PLACE
If you have questions about permitting, EOMA will be glad to help you out. The best thing you can do to promote mining activity in Oregon, is to do it right. Call Jan if you have questions at 541-446-3413.
CAPITOL PROSPECTING-METAL DETECTING AND MINING SUPPLIES
We are located in Baker City at 2801 Broadway Street. We buy used equipment and sell both new and used equipment. Come in and see what we have, or call me at 503-269-8640. My e-mail is CapitolProspecting@hotmail.com.
We appreciate your business. Gary and Christina Earle
ACTION MINING SERVICES, INC.(ca)
AMS is selling assay supplies, screens, chemicals and labware! Call for a quote and mention this ad for 10% off! Assay supplies, concentrators, impact mills, technical books (for the beginner to the advanced mill man), & more! Call for our free catalog or visit us online! Check out our website for information on Wave tables. We are located in Plains, Montana. Please call 406.826.9330 to place your order. This way our staff can have it pulled and ready for pick up. Otherwise, we can always ship your order! sales@actionmining.com • www.actionmining.com
AMERICAN EXPLORATION & MINING ASSOCIATION(ca)
EOMA is a member of American Exploration & Mining Association, and many of our members are also individual members. American Exploration & Mining Association is a 128-year-old, 1,400-member, national association representing the minerals industry. With members in 46 states, AEMA is the recognized national voice for exploration, the junior mining sector, maintaining access to public lands, and represents the entire mining life cycle, from exploration through production to reclamation and closure. You can become a member of AEMA by going to their website at https://www.miningamerica.org
PUBLIC LANDS FOR THE PEOPLE
EST. 1990, A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Corporation for 33 years
PLP exists to “Represent and assist outdoor user groups and individuals interested in keeping public and private lands open to prospecting, mining and outdoor recreation through education, scientific data and legal means.”
Our mailing address is:
Public Lands For The People
PO Box 1660
Inyokern, CA 93527
SUBSCRIBE TO MINING JOURNAL FOR UP TO DATE NEWS (ca)
ICMJ’s Prospecting and Mining Journal is your monthly source for news, legislation, how-to articles and more. Josh and Sherrie Lynn Reinke are the new owners of the Mining Journal, same great news source! A full year is still only $29.95; or get a print and an online subscription for just $44.95, and get access to our last 16 years of articles online too. Published monthly since 1931. Visit us at www.icmj.com or call at (831) 479-1500 to get your subscription.