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Emgold, a Canadian junior mining company, has filed a plan to re-open the Idaho-Maryland Mine within the city limits of Grass Valley, California, and to also build and operate a ceramics factory and / or crush mine waste rock and sell it as aggregate all within 1 mile of downtown Grass Valley and surrounded by homes and businesses on all sides.
CLAIM-GV has carefully and completely evaluated the plan, in its current state, and we do NOT believe this project is a good idea for Grass Valley or Nevada County. Please evaluate and examine the information we have gathered here so you can decide for yourself.
CURRENT STATUS: (As of April, 2010.) The first Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on the proposed reopening of the Idaho Maryland Mine (IMM) was prepared during 2008 and submitted for public review at the end of Oct. 2008. Comments were due by Jan. 20, 2009. The comments that were submitted have been indexed by CLAIM and are presented here. There were approximately 188 comments submitted, of which over 80% were negative.
These comments were reviewed by the City of Grass Valley, the lead agency, and in Aug. 2009, the city concluded that the initial DEIR was inadequate. Emgold self-servingly states that they (Emgold) have decided to make changes to the DEIR and to the project description. However, essentially, the City decided that the DEIR needed major revisions, and that these revisions were significant enough that the document has to be submitted for another round of public comments.
ESA, the consultant to the City, who wrote the original DEIR based on input from Emgold, has completed a draft work plan for proceeding with the revision. However, Emgold has no money to continue the process. Until Emgold can entice someone to purchase more shares of their penny stock, the process will likely stay right where it sits, in limbo.
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In 2008, Blue Lead Gold Mining LLC (hereafter Blue Lead) filed for a permit to mine their property after being put on notice to cease and desist illegal mining and overt trespass on neighboring properties. When informed that the permit was incomplete, Blue Lead decided to request that the Nevada County Planning Commission waive the need for a Use Permit, based upon the claim that the mine has a “vested right” to operate that was established in 1954. This would allow them to avoid conforming to operational rules that the county may impose. To qualify for this “vested right”, Blue Lead needed to prove that they had the right in 1954, and that they had continued to operate since then under certain criteria.
The Nevada County Planning Department staff provided strong evidence on the basis of which to deny the vested rights waiver request. However at a March 2010 hearing, council for Blue Lead was able to bamboozle the Planning Commission into considering that the vested rights waiver be granted despite the strong recomendation to the contrary by staff.
CLAIM along with other community groups and numerous concerned citizens rallied to the cause. At several subsequent hearings the community strongly argued that staff had gotten it right and that Blue Lead had no basis for being granted a waiver. Finally on May 27, after another 5 hours of Planning Commission meeting time, the Commission voted 4-1 NOT to grant the waiver. Blue Lead filed an appeal to the Board of Supervisors, with a hearing scheduled for August 10, 2010, and then in late July Blue Lead withdrew their appeal and indicated that they would continue the permit process.
CURRENT STATUS: As of August 2, 2010, Blue Lead has indicated that they will continue the permit process. We plan to monitor the process, and we will keep you informed. You can find out more here Blue Lead detail page
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