County approves gold exploration MOU with BLM

Agreement assures county a seat at table on drilling issue

“If you are not sitting at the table, you risk being on the menu.”

That morsel of political advice seemed to apply to Inyo County and the proposal to explore for gold on Conglomerate Mesa.

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a memorandum of understanding that will make it a “cooperating agency” during the federal environmental review of plans by K2 Gold/Mojave Precious Metals’ to drill about 120 bore holes from 30 different sites on Conglomerate Mesa, where it has valid, federal mining claims.

When including the roadwork needed to access the drill sites, the exploratory program would “impact” about 15 acres on the sprawling stretch of public, wild lands located in the Inyo Mountains, southeast of the former silver/lead mining town of Cerro Gordo.

About 15 people commented during Tuesday’s meeting, expressing near total opposition to both the exploratory drilling work and, even more adamantly, any future gold mine on the federal land. However, the speakers also encouraged Inyo County to approve the MOU so it can be deeply involved in the environmental work.

The Bureau of Land Management is preparing a federal Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the impacts of the drilling plan, which will take place on public land managed by BLM. County staff, the supervisors and concerned citizens acknowledged that Inyo County does not have any decision-making powers regarding the conclusions in the planned environmental documents or any sort of approval or denial of K2’s plans.

County involvement However, the county is responsible, under state law, for reclamation work under the terms of the state Surface Mining and Reclamation Act, said Inyo County Planning Director Cathleen Richards. The county, in essence, will be “the clean-up crew” if any work disturbs the land on Conglomerate Mesa. For that and other reasons, “we want to have some influence on the environmental documents,” she said, paying particular attention to issues surrounding proposed reclamation plans or projects.

By approving the MOU, the county will be able to have staff from the planning department become part of the team preparing

the EIR/EIS, Richards said.

And although the county’s legal responsibility is limited to the reclamation work, the county will also be in a position to comment on all aspects of the entire project, she added.

“It’s extraordinarily important that we stay at the table” during the environmental work, so Inyo can “protect the land” and the county, said Supervisor Trina Orrill before the 5-0 vote to approve the MOU.

Public comment Longtime environmental activist Mike Prather of Lone Pine brought some history to the discussion. He noted Father Crowley in the 1920s led the movement to develop Inyo County’s economy based on tourism and recreation in place of the “boombust” mining industry. Although the current work is simply for exploration, Prather called the work “the camel’s nose under the tent,” meaning it could be the first step in the development of a largescale gold mine on the mesa.

Richard Potashin of Lone Pine noted even the drilling and road work would “change the mesa forever,” and added Nevada’ huge, open pit gold mines are examples of devasting industrial mining.

Jaime Wolters, of Friends of the Inyo, said the county taking a strong stand to oppose the exploratory work and any future mine “would carry weight with BLM.” The mesa is home to the Inyo Rock Daisey and other unique plants and Western Joshua Trees, which recently were granted state protection (the effort to have the trees obtain a federal threatened or endangered species status has been unsuccessful).

The Range of Light Group of the Sierra Club will be closely tracking and monitoring any impacts if the drilling work is approved, said chair Lynn Boulton. That will include full reclamation of all roads and disturbed drill sites, revegetation, monitoring for noxious, invasive weeds and plants, she noted.

Supervisor Matt Kingsley said he has also heard from constituents who back the exploratory work and he will be open to “factual arguments” regarding Conglomerate Mesa.

He added that numerous companies have secured valid mining claims on the parcel and have conducted a variety of exploratory work in the past 20 years. Those mining claims, filed under the Mining Act of 1872, also give the mining companies some “legal rights” to develop a mine, he noted.

K2/Mojave Precious Metals, based in Canada, previously completed a small exploratory drilling program on its mining claims. The company sought approval for the large exploration plan, which BLM said would require the extensive EIS instead of an

Environmental Assessment. The company then closed its Lone Pine office but continued to pursue the larger exploratory work.