California gold miners score another win over state

Capitol alert, Dan Walters, 1/14/2015

California’s 21st century gold miners have scored a second major victory over state efforts to restrict – or ban – them from searching for the precious metal in rivers and streams on federally owned land, such as national forests.

On Monday, San Bernardino County Judge Gilbert Ochoa, building on a previous decision by a state appellate court, declared that the state’s moratorium on using suction dredges to sift through gravel had become a de facto ban and thus violated federal mining law, which encourages mining on federal lands.

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Tags: 
Capitol Alert, PLP, dredging
Author: 
admin
Post date: 
Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - 2:43pm

wepcgold.com Accounts

Submitted by admin on

All current members should now have a wepcgold.com account if they previously have provided an email address. Account details were emailed out to current members earlier in January.

If you did not receive the "New Account" email:

  1. Try to reset your password by following the "Request new password" on the front page in the "User login" box. This will send you a temporary password using the email address we have on record for you.
  2. If you are unable to claim your account using the first technique or have never provided an email address or have changed your email address, please fill out the form "Account Reset or Claim" under "Contact" in the main menu.

Member's Mining Location Reports

Submitted by admin on

The "Member's Mining Location Report" form is now available to members.

Included in the "Members Section" is an online form that can be submitted by members and a downloadable pdf of the original "Mail in" form. To access these forms you are required to login with your site account.

Pomona GPAA GOLD Show

Event date: 
Saturday, February 7, 2015 - 12:00am to Sunday, February 8, 2015 - 11:30pm

Fun for the Whole Family

Whether young, old, or somewhere in the middle, the excitement of unearthing your first spec of gold is something that you're not soon to forget. The Gold and Treasure expos are great opportunities to experience that level of excitement first hand. Spread out amongst the vendors are panning troughs for both kids and adults where you can learn skills and techniques used by the best in the business to uncover a healthy amount of gold.  

Drywashing Pacific Mining District

wepc67's picture Submitted by wepc67 on

Forums: 
General discussion

I was out in the Pacific Mining District in the Chuckwalla Mountain Range out interstate 10 past Indio about 35 miles. Did some nugget shooting and dry washing in a dry river bed. I found some old bullets one is a .50 cal that's a lot of lead I brought home. I didn't find any nuggets got very little fine powder gold in the dry washer. I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked digging.

Mining Legend leaves Legacy of Hope

PLP President Jerry Hobbs dead at 71

GPAA, Brad Jones, 12/31/2014

Public Lands for the People President Jerry Hobbs has died. He passed away Dec. 28, after a long battle with kidney and heart disease. He was 71.

Gerald Hobbs, better known as Jerry, was a legend in the mining community, and the founder of PLP, a land rights advocacy group. The membership-based, non-profit organization was established in 1990 and has been fighting to keep public lands open for multiple uses, including prospecting and mining, ever since.

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Tags: 
PLP, GPAA
Author: 
admin
Post date: 
Thursday, January 1, 2015 - 11:53pm

Renew your fire permit!

California 2014 Campfire permits have just expired. Get your 2015 permit online now by watching a short 2 minute video.

Get Your Permit Here!
Author: 
admin
Post date: 
Thursday, January 1, 2015 - 12:00am

MINING RIGHTS: Court battle hinges on Supremacy Clause

GPAA, Brad Jones, 12/15/2014

Ochoa clears legal hurdles, set to rule in California dredging case

Miners and their opponents squared off again in California Superior Court Dec. 12 to make their cases for and against suction dredging mining in California. 

The hearing was part of the ongoing Mandatory Settlement Conference that Judge Gilbert Ochoa ordered May 1 last year in an attempt to resolve the legal battle over suction dredge mining, which was banned by the state more than five years ago.
Miners argue that the state has no authority to ban suction dredge mining under the federal Mining Law of 1872 and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which declares that federal law is the supreme law of the land. 
The settlement conference is the culmination of years of litigation involving more than a half-dozen or so consolidated lawsuits that are being heard by Ochoa in San Bernardino.
Ironically, a separate case, the Brandon Rinehart case has become pivotal in the decision.
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Tags: 
GPAA, legal, dredging
Author: 
admin
Post date: 
Monday, December 15, 2014 - 6:16pm

Significant progress made in court for California suction gold dredgers; still more work to be done

 ICMJ.com / Ron Kliewer / 12/13/2014

The DREDGE REPORT

Today was a milestone day in the battle to maintain the rights of miners to dredge on federal mining claims in California. As a plaintiff in this case, I was in the courtroom on Friday, December 12, 2014, along with fifteen miners who gathered to show their support in the ongoing fight with the various parties arrayed against them, trying to extinguish their way of life, their way of supporting their families and their way of boosting the local rural economies. It has been an upstream fight and we got to rest a bit today in a pool of tranquility. Judge Ochoa, after months of reading endless briefs and supporting cases that were cited by both sides, told us plainly where he stood on several aspects of the combined cases and what he intended to rule in the coming weeks. First I’ll get into the tall grass with some details of the court proceedings so you get a taste of how things work; then I’ll spread out the paydirt in the gold pan for you.

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Tags: 
The DREDGE REPORT, dredging, california, ICMJ, legal
Author: 
admin
Post date: 
Monday, December 15, 2014 - 6:12pm

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