CALIFORNIA & DREDGING

[ghostminer]

Would like to hear where California stands on dredging at this time. I know there has been a lot of back & forth on it. Is there anyone actually actively dredging in California at this time > tell me your story.

 

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[mikep691]

Seriously doubt you will ever get a response to that.

 

[ghostminer]

I just wondered if anyone has applied for a dredge permit & what obstacles they ran into.

 

[mikep691]

Oh, the permit that basically doesn't exist... Gotcha

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[ghostminer]

OK>sorry I asked.

 

[oldbones]

Dredging requires a permit, a permit that doesn't exist at the moment. I've heard from several they expect that to change next year. Time will tell.

 

[SunshineMiner]

Ghostminer, unfortunately its a tough crowd sometimes depending on the question. This is one of those hot topics that people get their panties all in a bunch over.

Short answer, yes. There are a few individuals out there who choose to dredge, quit a few in the northern counties. Heres the thing, depending on who catches you, fines, and they take your equipment. I'm sure since your asking this question you've heard of the Brandon Rhinehart case? If not, you need to do a little more reading in terms of dredging and what you may potentially get yourself involved with.... i.e. more gold, more efficiently, while removing harmful material such as lead and mercury from the waterways!

 

[ghostminer]

Thank you SunshineMiner. Nice to have a friendly person on the board. One of the reasons I asked about this was back in the fall of 2015 I was staying in a cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mts of California while doing sampling on our mines. I won't say where I was but it was on a river with a highway beside it. There was active dredging taking place every day. I asked some people who lived up there if those people where able to get a permit. I was told no, it's just that no one enforces the law there>they don't care. Seemed odd but they were dredging in full view beside a highway. I don't know if they still are. I know our mines have gold in the creeks & I would love to do some dredging but Fish & Game is there quite a bit. Maybe someday.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Things like that can be overturned but the miners need to organize.
Forestry closed a bunch of trails up near pitkin a few years ago and blocked them off with downed trees and boulders.
The residents pleaded with usfs to remove the litter and open the trails. The community uses the area heavily as well as tourists.
In short, usfs said no.
The community residents then told usfs that they would open it all this weekend if it was not done, they have the equipment and would do it themselves. They weren't happy by this point.
Almost the entire town showed up with saws and backhoes and excavators and we're threatened to be arrested by usfs. The residents told them they'd have to arrest everyone. Usfs reopened all the trails and that was that and they never tried it again since.
Just takes enough people to organize and call bs to this type of stuff. The cali dredgers have a chance to make history now if they want it bad enough.
Form a statewide dredgers coalition and go dredging. If a group is big enough they will have to listen. When they show up to shut you down the real work begins.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Fish and game has no authority over mining anyway.

 

[ghostminer]

They'd be going against the State of California. Not sure how that would work out. I have worked extensively with the USFS on our mining properties & have found them very willing & reasonable in regards to placer mining. We've also had the California Water Quality Control Board on our mines for water use approval. No issues. I guess dredging is a different ball game for them. We have 4000 ft gold bearing creeks & after the floods those creeks should be productive. It would be nice to dredge them.

 

[mikep691]

What I meant by saying you won't get a response is the State has made it nearly impossible to get a non existent permit. All it takes is one of the multitude of agencies to not have it available and you lose. Those that choose to bypass the state certainly are not going to respond on an open forum.

 

[ghostminer]

Noted. No hard feelings.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Yeah they'd have to go against the state or whoever. If they want it bad enough they will but seems it's not. Maybe not enough gold left to make it worth standing up for or just not important enough to most people.
Never know what the future may hold. They may get their rights back someday (doubt it), or prospecting will be made illegal altogether. They pass illegal laws all the time, no biggy.
If nothing else, there's alot of dredges not being used and I need one hehe.

 

[placertogo]

The only hope is for some kind of “stealth” prospecting where dredging is allowed as a by product of some kind of accepted activity such as removal of lead shot and sinkers, broken glass, mercury, and other trash. Having been around this racket for many years, my take is that what really bothers the anti-prospecting people is that they see us as making money from what they see as “their” environment.

 

[winners58]

you only have to carry them down to the river
F&G will carry them out...
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Klamath river/wingate 2016

 

[Aufisher]

Skip the dredge, its way more fun to hydraulic mine!

 

[Hoser John]

Just talked to my tree mans helper yesterday and he was tried twice on charges of running a sluice box. Diverting a stream and introducing foreign substances into the waterway. Over 2 years of multi court hearings. He is going to show me his records as I was amazed that right here in French Gulch the FW is so insane. They brought in a enviromental expert lawyer from Frisco to prosecute the second time?? My god what a insane mess as deemed innocent but time,energy and money gone-John

 

[Goldwasher]

Just talked to my tree mans helper yesterday and he was tried twice on charges of running a sluice box. Diverting a stream and introducing foreign substances into the waterway. Over 2 years of multi court hearings. He is going to show me his records as I was amazed that right here in French Gulch the FW is so insane. They brought in a enviromental expert lawyer from Frisco to prosecute the second time?? My god what a insane mess as deemed innocent but time,energy and money gone-John

If he prevailed , he can't get his time back but he can recover his legal costs. It is also case law now.

It would be nice to know the name on the case so we can at it to the file of cases miners win that can be used in court.

 

[n01d3x]

This whole thing is so annoying. I've talked to my local BLM, FS and F&G about the various mining rules and regs. BLM's answer was basically that I could do anything unless I was in a "designated protected area", and then I could only use an electric pump because all gas motors are banned in those areas, mining related or not. He did say, "technically you can even dreee.., well I won't go into that." He actually gave me his name and told me if I have any troubles to have whoever I'm dealing with call him. He said he talked to the LEO's in my area about what the regs are and they that "should" all know. My local FS told me that I can't use any "motor driven suction equipment", but that gas\electric pumps and high banking are fine as long as I am not discharging directly back into a water way. The F & G guys were the toughest. No one there had any idea what a high banker or a small water pump was. At first the lady told me I was fine, then she got another guy involved. He said I can't use a pump but recommended I use a bucket to drop water on my sluice, lol. Then they told me they weren't well enough informed and that they would have a F & G guy who was call me back. That guy told me that as long as I wasn't using suction to remove gravels from the stream bed, and that I was using small equipment designed for just a couple of guys that I would be ok to do basically whatever. All of my questions to these guys were in regards to running a highbanker powered by either a gas or electric pump.
Then I read stories on here and am scared to even run my bazooka most of the time, lol!