EASTERN OREGON
MINING ASSOCIATION
OCTOBER 2023
VOLUME 409
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
OCTOBER 6, 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
The Federal government needs to be reminded that the people were promised the right to use the resources of the National Forests when the forests were reserved.
This fact becomes very important as the Forest Service develops a new forest plan. Access and use of the forests must recognize the needs of the people who use the National Forests, and all decisions to close roads needs to be coordinated with the counties.
As the revised Forest Plan is being written, it is essential to all Forest users that we have an open forest. That means, roads are considered public roads open for vehicles to travel, unless the Forest Service co-ordinates a proposed closure with the public and with the county.
The bottom line is, if a road is not doing resource damage, and is being used by the public, that road should not be closed. Please inform the Forest Service that you would like to have a forest that is accessible, and user friendly.
EASTERN OREGON MININNG 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.
WHAT DO YOU DO THE FIRST YEAR WHEN YOU LOCATE YOUR CLAIM?
Many miners lose their claims every year. Maintaining a claim is a complicated process, with no forgiveness if you miss a deadline.
The year you file a 20-acre claim, you pay a maintenance fee of $165, a location fee of $40 and a filing fee of $20 for a total of $225. For a 40 acre claim you pay $390 because you pay an additional maintenance fee for the additional 20 acres in the claim. Many miners believe that they do not need a waiver the first year, since they paid the maintenance fee, but that is not how it works. Your location fees the first year, only cover that assessment year.
If you intend on mining in the next assessment year, you can do one of two things. (1) submit a waiver on or before September 1 which tells BLM you intend to mine during the next assessment year or (2) pay another maintenance fee which is the other way of telling BLM you intend to mine in the next assessment year.
According to BLM regulations, you do not have to do assessment work the year you file your claims. Instead, you can use an Intent to Hold. But regardless of whether you do assessment work or use a Notice of Intent to Hold, you must have a small miner waiver filed on or before September 1. The waiver is a contract with BLM and requires original signatures. The waiver tells BLM you intend to hold the claims and work them during the next assessment year. The waiver does not need to be recorded at the county, and there is no fee for filing it, but if you miss the September 1 deadline, you lose your claims.
If you did assessment work, you must file your Proof of Labor (Stevens-Ness form 602 or BLM has their own form) on or before December 30 with BLM. If you didn’t have time to do any assessment work, you can file a Notice of Intent to Hold the first year that you locate your claim, however, this will only work for the year in which you file your claim. Like the Proof of Labor form, the Notice of Intent to Hold must be filed first with the County, then sent to BLM on or before December 30.
If you prefer to pay fees, your fees are your means of reserving the claims for the next assessment year. Fees must be paid to BLM by September 1. If you pay fees, fill out the part on the Proof of Labor form that says you are paying fees. File this with the county, and send to BLM, along with your maintenance fee payment, on or before September 1.
CASTLE ROCK HUDSON MINE DESTRUCTION AND THE DEFINITION OF ABANDONED MINES-Jan alexander
I looked up the EPA website to find that agency’s definition of what constitutes an “abandoned mine”. According to the US EPA, abandoned mines are: “Those lands, waters, and surrounding watersheds contaminated or scarred by extraction, beneficiation or processing of ores and minerals, including phosphate but not coal*. Abandoned mine lands include areas where mining or processing activity is temporarily inactive.”
This definition is completely opposed to the common definition of abandoned mine lands, which states, “an abandoned mine refers to a former mining or quarrying operation that is no longer in use and has no responsible entity to finance the cost of remediation and/or restoration of the mine feature or site”
Laura Perrigan’s brother Tom died, and the mining activity was “temporarily inactive” because Laura’s Plan of Operation had not yet been approved. The Forest Service went in and destroyed Laura’s portal and access road, because they used EPA’s definition of an abandoned mine being one where mining or processing is “temporarily inactive”.
All miners should be aware of this onerous EPA policy, which the Forest Service seems glad to follow. By using this EPA definition of what constitutes an abandoned mine, it allows the Forest Service to use abandoned mine funds to destroy any mine they want to destroy and close the access roads to and within that mine.
Miners operating under approved Plans of Operation must work their claims every year or inform the Forest Service of the reason work will not take place in a season. Miners using hand tools, must work their claims every season, and inform the Forest Service in writing which roads they use for access. It is important for miners to be proactive is keeping their claims from being determined “inactive”, and thus, being destroyed and access roads closed.
DOE UPDATE CRITICAL MATERIALS LIST
On July 31, the Department of Energy (DOE) released its 2023 Final Critical Materials list. Included on the list are aluminum, cobalt, copper, dysprosium, electrical steel, fluorine, gallium, iridium, lithium, magnesium, natural graphite, neodymium, nickel, platinum, praseodymium, silicon, silicon carbide and terbium. According to DOE, the list helps various agency programs set research and development priorities, and also determines eligibility for 48C tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. There are key differences between DOE’s critical materials list and USGS’ critical minerals list. DOE’s list includes a forward-looking component in the methodology, similar to a market forecast. For this reason, it includes copper, which USGS does not. AEMA submitted comments to DOE in June, strongly supporting the inclusion of copper on DOE’s Critical Materials list.
IWG RECOMMENDATIONS ON MINING UNWORKABLE AND UNREASONABLE-
National Mining Association (NMA)
The National Mining Association (NMA) today released the following statement from Rich Nolan, President and CEO, concerning the Interagency Working Group on mining’s, “Recommendations to Improve Mining on Public Lands.”
“It’s clear that when it comes to the global minerals game, the U.S. is critically outmatched—by our geopolitical rivals and allies alike, and the administration acknowledges this. Unfortunately, if the Biden-Harris administration’s stated objective is to secure our nation’s domestic mineral supply chains while supporting responsible mining, the recommendations contained in this report don’t do anything to advance the ball. In fact, most of the recommendations made by the IWG reveal a fundamental lack of understanding of our industry and the laws that govern it, and will throw insurmountable obstacles in the way of responsible domestic projects and would-be investment.”
Problems with the report’s recommendations are many but include the following.
(1) Leasing System. The IWG clearly fails to understand the significant differences between other extractive industries, where information is known about the extent of the reserves to allow prospective lessees to understand the potential rewards prior to bidding on the lease, and hardrock mining, where finding viable mineral deposits can take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to find a mineral deposit that can be produced economically.
(2) Royalties. Industry has long said it is open to compromise on a reasonable prospective net royalty. But the IWG’s recommendation to impose a royalty of up to 8 percent is not only outsized but, for existing operations, a new royalty that was never accounted for in the mine plan of operation would erase profitability, potentially leading to an early mine closure and constitutional takings liability for the federal government.
(3) Dirt Tax. There is a large amount of material moved on a mine site that is of no value to get to a tiny fraction of materials that are of potential value; applying a tax to material that has no value simply because it has been displaced could carry enormous costs and is nonsensical.
(4) Permitting Reforms. The IWG’s recommendations on permitting represent a missed opportunity for the administration to act aggressively to address the severity of the permitting problem while maintaining our world class environmental and safety standards. Separate from the work in the IWG, Congress specifically directed the administration in Section 40206 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to implement specific permitting improvements and to report to Congress (by Nov. 15, 2022) on further recommended improvements. Department of Interior (DOI) and USDA ignored this statutory requirement.
AMERICAN EXPLORATION & MINING PRESIDENT MIKE SATRE’S MESSAGE
Somehow, the weeks have raced by, and summer is rapidly fading away. We know our members have been extremely busy these past few months with field projects, drilling campaigns, and capital construction efforts and we hope that the summer has been safe and successful for all.
As you’ve been diligently engaged in finding and producing the critical and essential minerals that our country requires, the AEMA has also been actively involved in promoting and safeguarding our industry on all fronts. While we continue to see policy decisions that place hurdles in front of us, it has been heartening to witness some victories this summer, notably the inclusion of copper as a critical material by the Department of Energy (DOE). We all recognize that copper is indispensable for our energy future, and the DOE’s acknowledgment of the supply chain risk associated with this metal, vital to our daily lives, is significant.
Regrettably, numerous metals failed to make the cut on the DOE list—minerals that our members explore for and produce. In our comments to DOE on the draft list, we said:
“Though AEMA strongly supports the proposed inclusion of copper on DOE’s critical materials list, it is concerned that the list excludes tin, tungsten, antimony, silver, gold, uranium, boron, palladium, rhodium, phosphate and other minerals important to the energy sector. The availability of such minerals – especially those with widespread uses in infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, defense, and consumer products – is an issue of national importance. Shortages in these minerals would create serious economic disruptions that would drastically affect our economy and the development of energy technologies.”
While we’re encouraged by DOE’s forward-looking approach to determining critical materials for energy, we remain apprehensive that a focus on lists, including the critical mineral list from the Department of the Interior, might hinder overall support for the mineral industry. We will unequivocally oppose any effort to separate the permitting pathways for minerals deemed “critical” from those that are not.
Nonetheless, we’re pleased to observe that one positive outcome of this newfound recognition of mineral supply chain risks is the availability of substantial grant and loan funding for the mining industry from both the DOE and the Department of Defense. We enthusiastically celebrate the news when our member companies announce that they have capitalized on these opportunities.
Looking ahead, the AEMA will persistently engage at all levels to ensure that our members can concentrate on what they do best: discovering and producing the minerals indispensable to our society.
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 (10)
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.
MINING & PROSPECTING EQUIPMENT for SALE
CHAMPION 2” SEMI-TRASH PUMP (100 HRS) $250.
GOLD HOG HIGH BANKER,w/ EXTENSION, FLARE, CLAY CLAW
(includes Original Hog Pan) Price reduced $900
GOLD HOG MULIT-SLUICE Price reduced $375
GOLD HOG STREAM SLUICE w/ POWER HEAD Price reduced $275
GOLD-DUSTER 2-CYCLE VACUUM SYSTEM (New) Price reduced $250
2” CAM-LOCK type COUPLERS (each) $10.
2” LAY FLAT HOSE AND OTHER SMALL ITEMS AVAILABLE
Dan Brown
La Grande, OR
(541) 786-4828 (call or text)
danbrown@eoni.com
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. AEMA members reside in 44 states, 7 Canadian provinces and 11 countries and are actively involved in prospecting, exploring, mining, and reclamation closure activities across North America & the world.
This association keeps miners up on what is happening in the mining industry. To stay up to date on mining issues, you can become a member of AEMA by going to their website at https://www.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.