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Friday, August 10, 2012

Public hearing... decision in the near future

        We’re a little nervous, a little excited, but most of all happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

        We’re talking small scale placer mining permit. We have a hearing before the South Dakota Board of Minerals on Aug. 15-16 in Deadwood. 

        Wednesday will be an on-site inspection to view the project. We spent a few hours today (Thursday) putting in pin flags to represent the buffer zone written into the permit for Iron Creek, drainage areas that will not be mined, and a general idea of where we will be mining and access to the property.  Whew! Thanks Brian, for all your help.

        We were visited by some very friendly but inquisitive US Forest Service personnel.  We don’t blame them… just doing their job.  Once it was ascertained that we had legitimate reason to be marking out boundaries, that we have a Plan of Operation that allows our activity, and we had no campfires or cigarettes burning, they departed on friendly terms.

        We don’t mind… would rather see them out watching for fire risk than out fighting fire!

        That brings us back to a discussion we’ve had frequently.  We toured the claim with Ms. Hudson of DENR this time last year.  She suffers from allergies.  It was hovering around 100 degrees, there was a slight flow in the creek and numerous wildflowers blooming!

        Flash forward to this year, same time, same place.  The wildflowers and grass are cured, the creek has been dry for at least a month.  It looks and feels more like late September!

 


        But back to the permit.  I’ve been wrestling with our presentation…  I’ve sat thru so many of these speeches on the other side of the table as a reporter!  What I know is this… keep it short and simple! The Board of Minerals, after touring our little four acre project, go on to tour the Deadwood Standard and Wharf Resources. Thank goodness we’re on the agenda first or they probably wouldn’t even remember us!
        We’re hoping the impression is good and the project sets an example of what really constitutes a small scale operation. It will help in the long run, I think, to distinguish that so many of these permits are really recreational mining (a tiny pit dug with a backhoe to allow user-friendly recreation) from active placer mining with loaders feeding a recovery system.

        That is what we are striving to do… and get some gold while we’re at it! 

       

4 comments:

  1. How did the hearing go?

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  2. To all interested... permit approved with conditions, but nothing we hadn't planned on all along! We're tired, but happy and will post a blog on the details when I get rested up a bit. Thanks for your interest and support. The positive feedback already far outweighs negative comments--Teresa and Bob

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  3. Between this and the Deadwood Standard Project headlining the news lately, hopefully they will both inspire more mining operations in the Black Hills - big or small - to take place. I think a lot of people around here (the ones with negative attitudes towards mining) often forget our heritage here, if you appreciate living in the Black Hills, then you ought to appreciate mining.

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