EASTERN OREGON
MINING ASSOCIATION
NOVEMBER 2023
VOLUME 410
YOUR MEMBERSHIP IS IMPORTANT!
If you can’t pay in person, please send your $35 dues ($40 for a couple) to: EOMA, PO Box 932, Baker City, OR 97814. You can also pay with a credit card on our website.
NEW WEBSITE ADDRESS: EOMA.US
NOVEMBER 3, 2023 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
Miners need to ask themselves-am I still exploring or do I have enough information about the deposit to confirm that I am mining? Most of us are in exploration, but if you are mining, the following will apply to you according to mitigations recently required by the Forest Service.
Validity: Prior to any production level mining activities, evaluation of placer/lode mining claims for the elements of a valuable mineral deposit is required. Submit to the Forest Service Minerals Staff information concerning your mining claims including but not limited to, claim numbers, maps, drilling data, geophysical data, past production data, recovery rates, grades, cross-sections (detailing the location of bedrock and grades), tonnages previously mined, operating costs, productivity of both mining and processing equipment, and any other information that will help qualified Forest Service Staff determine if the claims you intend to mine contain the elements of a valuable mining claim. This review will examine the information regarding your deposit and your proposed operations to determine if there is a reasonable prospect that the operation will be profitable, satisfying the conditions to determine if an assumption of validity can be made.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO WITH DOGAMI IF YOU ARE THROUGH EXPLORING AND READY TO MINE? -DOGAMI
ORS 517.790(1) A landowner or operator may not allow or engage in surface mining on land not surface mined on July 1, 1972, without holding a valid operating permit from the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries for the surface mining operation. A separate permit is required for each separate surface mining operation.
ORS 517.750 (16)(a) “Surface mining” includes: (A) All or any part of the process of mining minerals by the removal of overburden and the extraction of natural mineral deposits thereby exposed by any method by which more than 5,000 cubic yards of minerals are extracted or by which at least one acre of land is affected within a period of 12 consecutive calendar months, including open-pit mining operations, auger mining operations, processing, surface impacts of underground mining, production of surface mining refuse and the construction of adjacent or off-site borrow pits, except those constructed for use as access roads.
ORS 517.755 Notwithstanding the yard and acre limitations of ORS 517.750 (16), as soon as any mining operation begun after July 1, 1975, affects more than five acres of land the provisions of ORS 517.702 to 517.989 apply to the mining operation.
In other words, if you are mining less than one acre each year, and have not impacted 5 acres you do not need an Operating Permit. An Operating Permit from DOGAMI requires that the project area be surveyed by a licensed surveyor, bonded (double bonded if you already have a bond with the FS or BLM) and fish, wildlife, wetland and cultural surveys must be completed and signed off by each agency. The timeframe for approval is 6 months to one year from submittal of a complete application. The cost is $2,000.
ARE YOU CONDUCTING SMALL-SCALE SURFACE MINING? -DOGAMI
ORS 517.753 (1) Notwithstanding the yard and acre limitations of ORS 517.750 (16), a person may not engage in surface mining that results in the extraction of 5,000 cubic yards or less of minerals or affects less than one acre of land within a period of 12 consecutive calendar months except in compliance with an exclusion certificate (EC) issued by the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries under this section. Except as provided in ORS 517.755, a mining operation subject to a valid exclusion certificate is not subject to the operating permit or reclamation requirements set forth in ORS 517.702 to 517.989.
The problem with an EC is that 5,000 cubic yards or less of mined material would theoretically mean even extracting a shovelful of dirt would mean you need an EC. The best approach, if you are doing exploration, and prospecting, rather than mining, is to do nothing with DOGAMI. See the article on Prospecting OAR 632-033-0010 (12) on the next page. An EC costs you $80.
ARE YOU PROSPECTING?-DOGAMI
OAR 632-033-0010 (12) “Prospecting” for the purpose of these rules means activities conducted on or beneath the surface of the earth for the purpose of determining presence, location, extent, grade, or economic viability, but does not disturb more than one cumulative acre.
Prospecting does not require a permit from DOGAMI.
ARE YOU CONDUCTING MINERAL EXPLORATION?-DOGAMI
ORS 517.705 (1) A person may not engage in onshore exploration that disturbs more than one surface acre or involves drilling to greater than 50 feet except in compliance with a permit issued by the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries under this section.
ORS 517.750 (5) “Exploration” means all activities conducted on or beneath the surface of the earth for the purpose of determining presence, location, extent, grade or economic viability of a deposit. “Exploration” does not include prospecting or chemical processing of minerals.
Unless you are proposing to drill deeper than 50 feet, you will not need an exploration permit until you impact more than one acre. An exploration permit requires all the studies that an operating permit requires, also requires a bond (double bond if you are already bonded with the FS or BLM) but does not require a land survey. The timeframe for approval from DOGAMI is 6-12 months from submittal of a complete application. The cost is $2,000.
EASTERN OREGON MINING ASSOCIATION HAS A NEW WEBSITE: EOMA.US
Our new website is up and running. Many thanks to Robyn Hodgdon for all her work!
If anyone can think of things to add or change, let Ken know at 541-446-3413.
EXTENDING FOREST SERVICE PLANS OF OPERATION-Jan Alexander
Ken and I will meet with Ranger Cikanek to discuss our Plans of Operation that will reach their duration of activities date next year. This was an arbitrary date on plans of operation set by the Forest Service as to when they thought we would be done mining.
They asked for a sketch map of where we had conducted exploration and reclaimed, where we still wanted to conduct exploration, and an amendment for one of our Plans, which was discussed with Ray Lovisone and Keifer Nace when they visited the claims. Ray said he was retiring in January and wanted to help the ranger get the extensions done. There are only a handful of us who have been operating for 10 years. But all Plans of Operation have this duration of activities date, and sooner or later all of us will need to deal with this issue.
Once the F.S. decides you are done operating, they will close your mine access road and conduct any reclamation that you don’t get done. Be proactive, stay in touch with the F.S., tell them what roads you need, tell them you are not through working your claims.
AMERICAN EXPLORATION AND MINING NEWS RELEASE
The American Exploration & Mining Association (AEMA) released the following statement from Mark Compton, Executive Director, regarding the Interagency Working Group on Mining Regulations, Laws and Permitting (IWG) report published today:
We simply are not moving mining projects forward in a timeframe that will allow our Nation to achieve its ambitious clean energy objectives or reduce our reliance on foreign minerals that empowers our adversaries to strategically weaponize minerals against us. The Interagency Working Group’s (IWG) report was an opportunity to identify ways to eliminate some of the current barriers to discovering and developing minerals on public lands. Unfortunately, in many ways it missed the mark.
With skyrocketing global mineral demand and bipartisan recognition of the need for a strong domestic mineral supply chain to reduce our risky dependence on foreign minerals, the IWG was formed to be a whole government effort “to promote the sustainable and responsible development of critical minerals.” Yet, despite bipartisan mandates for a more efficient permitting process, the administration rolls out ideas that have repeatedly been rejected by Congress.
The intention of the IWG was to improve our process and increase domestic mining, not derail it. More than half of public lands already are set aside for conservation and preservation purposes and are functionally off-limits to mining. Shrinking the available land base where mineral exploration and mining are allowed would reduce the number of future mineral discoveries that can become mines. Even the prospect of some of the proposed changes, such as the conversion to a leasing system, will yield years of policy and implementation uncertainties that will push exploration and mining companies away from U.S. mineral development opportunities, exacerbating our reliance on countries with lower environmental and labor standards.
The report seems to start with the false premise that mining in the U.S. is not done in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. On the contrary, the U.S. mining industry is the global standard for responsible mining. While acknowledging we can always do better, for a long time the mining industry has been committed to meaningful, respectful dialogue and engagement with Tribes and local communities to improve projects and bring a variety of benefits to stakeholders. It is our recommendation that the federal government follow suit and improve their own consultation process.
As the departments of Defense, Energy and State work to reverse our path of dangerous reliance on minerals from adversarial countries, the mixed bag of recommendations in this report shows the administration is in conflict with itself and what we believed were the universal goals of this working group. AEMA is committed to continuing to work constructively with the administration and Congress to ensure the timely advancement of domestic minerals projects to help meet our Nation’s critical needs.
MINING ASTEROIDS- Ed Carreon/AstroForge
AstroForge, a U.S.-based startup with plans to mine asteroids, is fine-tuning details for the launch of a spacecraft in the first quarter of next year, which would make it the first private company to visit an M-type asteroid and operate in deep space.
The Brokkr-2 spacecraft will travel on board Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket, which will carry a drill to explore the Moon’s surface, as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
AstroForge’s mission will continue further until reaching an M-type asteroid, which contains higher concentrations of metal than regular asteroids. If successful, it would mark a significant milestone on the startup’s mission to commercially mine asteroids for critical resources.
The California-based firm successfully test fired in September the rockets that will allow Brokkr-2 to reach the target celestial body, located 35.4 million km from Earth. This was a crucial step before the spacecraft is integrated with the SpaceX rocket next year. The ride-share trip, chartered by Intuitive Machines, would be the final step of Brokkr-2’s flyby to simulate a projected round-trip mission. After that, the company will install the last needed pieces to the vehicle and the rest of the spacecraft will be built around the system, it said.
AstroForge estimates that it would take about nine months to reach the M-type asteroid, with the overall mission lasting about two years.
“With a finite supply of precious metals on Earth, we have no other choice than to look to deep space to source cost-effective and sustainable materials,” CEO Matthew Gialich said in April.
A new study on the subject, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal, says the metals needed for batteries and renewable energy infrastructure could soon go up in price, “potentially delaying the clean energy transition.”
According to the authors, the lack of supply to meet demand will force mining companies to dig in places where such metals aren’t as readily available, which comes with serious economic and environmental costs.
Nearly 9,000 asteroids larger than 36 meters in diameter orbit near Earth. Many of them are packed with metals needed on Earth, such as cobalt, nickel and platinum-group metals.
AstroForge is not the first startup to attempt asteroid mining, but it’s experiencing better timing. Two previous companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries emerged about a decade ago, but neither company arrived on any asteroids and were eventually acquired and rerouted to other endeavors.
CASTLE ROCK HUDSON MINE DESTRUCTION – Jan alexander
Laura Perrigan has conducted more sampling this season near the Hudson portal, which was destroyed by the Forest Service, and is unsafe to enter. The miner hired to do the sampling located a ledge of rock, similar to the ore that Laura’s brother found when he drove the Hudson drift. She will send samples for assays but the deposit looks promising.
Laura needs her mine access road put back to the original condition. The Forest Service completely tore up a section of her road, to the point that it not passable for pick-ups or even ATVs, and even difficult to walk over due to boulders and gabion wire in the roadbed.
Laura is not done exploring and sampling on her claims. She must have access. The Forest Service destroyed her access and they must put it back.
GRAPHITE-A KEY RAW MATERIAL IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES-Battery Metals Digest
When China announced restrictions on exports of gallium and germanium in July, former Vice Commerce Minister Wei Jianguo was quoted in the China Daily as saying it was “just the start” if the West continued to target China’s high-technology sector. Restricting the flow of two metals used in the manufacture of silicon chips was “a well-thought-out heavy punch” in reaction to the US Chips Act, Wei said.
The Biden administration has since tightened restrictions on the flow of advanced artificial intelligence chips to China, announcing on Friday a new raft of measures aimed at closing previous loopholes. China is responding in kind, this time taking aim at the West’s electric vehicle (EV) ambitions. There is much potential for further escalation in this unfolding critical minerals battle between China and the West.
Graphite has slipped under the radar in the broader critical raw materials debate. China’s control of other battery inputs such as cobalt, nickel and lithium has grabbed the headlines. Those are all used to make the battery cathode. It won’t work, however, without an anode, which is invariably made of graphite.
Indeed, graphite is the largest EV battery component by weight, typically accounting for between 50 and 100 kg. China is the dominant player in the global supply of both natural graphite and synthetic graphite, which has been taking an increasing share of the market. The country accounts for around two-thirds of all natural graphite production and, according to consultancy Benchmark Minerals, supplies around 98% of the world’s synthetic graphite anodes.
The West’s dependency on Chinese supply has seen graphite recently join the likes of cobalt and rare earths on the US Department of Energy’s list of super-critical raw materials. The big question is how tightly China will squeeze the graphite export pipeline.
)EOMA ADVERTISING AND SALE LISTINGS
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 2023 to see if they can help improve gold recovery.
If you are interested, please call Office: +44 (0)207 456 0800
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.
WANTED (9)
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(0)
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 contiguous 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.
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. American Exploration & Mining Association | MiningAmerica.org
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.