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Opinion
I am responding to Mike Pasner’s recent letter to The Union. Mr. Pasner is a member of Claim-GV and a vocal opponent of the Idaho-Maryland Project.
I appreciate Claim-GV’s right to oppose the Idaho-Maryland project. However, the public needs to be aware that much of the information being put out by this group is incorrect, misleading, and designed to deceive and create fear in the public. In response to some of the inaccuracies in Mr. Pasner’s letter:
The Idaho-Maryland Mine is not in the city limits of Grass Valley. Part of the project area is planned for annexation into the city as part of its 2020 general plan and part would remain in the county. Annexing would enable the city to collect sales tax from the project.
Mr. Pasner states that there are no hard rock metal mines operating inside city limits in California. No major operating hard rock metal mines existed in California as recently as 2007 (source: USGS). At that time, two gold mines were still recovering gold from heap leach operations, but not mining.
In 2008, both the Briggs Mine and Mesquite Mine reopened in California. It is hard to have a metal mine within city limits when there are no mines left in the state.
Many operating mines, both open-pit and underground, are within or adjacent to cities.
Examples include Hutchinson Salt Mine, Bingham Canyon Mine (copper), Windsor Salt Mine, Red Lake Mine (gold), and Thompson Mine (nickel), just to name a few. Hundreds of quarries are located in cities — Perkins Quarry in Sacramento would be a good example.
The ceramics plant would not be visible from most of Grass Valley. It definitely would not be visible from the Nevada County Contractor’s Office, City Hall or the Board of Realtor’s office as Pasner claims.
It would be partially visible from the hospital, which is on a hill directly above the project. The mine buildings would be hidden behind a buffer of trees along Idaho-Maryland Road. Visual simulations of the buildings can be found at www.idaho-maryland.com under “Project Description.”
The photo renderings (not the artistic renderings) show what the mine site would look like once it is built. Buildings have been designed to look like a business park and at closure the buildings and site would be transformed into a business park.
There would not be 300 private wells affected by the dewatering of the mine. The draft environmental impact report indicates an area where potentially 30 wells could be impacted.
Claim-GV’s economic analysis of the mining project that Mr. Pasner indicates is forthcoming should be interesting. I expect it will be similar to their jobs analysis, which concludes: “According to Idaho-Maryland Mine’s projections of 400 permanent jobs, only about 103 jobs lasting more than 12 years could go to current Grass Valley area residents, with a real possibility that as few as 26 jobs would go to local residents. And if there is no ceramics plant, these numbers plummet to 51 and 13 respectively.” I suggest you try to follow their math.
The reality is that the mine would provide over 400 high-paying jobs for 20 years. Half of these jobs will go to local residents. (See chart above.)
Many of the anti-mining links on the Claim-GV Web site also contain misinformation.
For example, their link to “Gold is the Duddest of Dud Investments” quotes Merrill Lynch as saying gold is a poor investment and portrays the article as being written Feb. 2, 2009. The original article was actually written in 2001 titled, “Fool’s Gold, 10 Problems with Gold Mining” by Project Underground of Berkeley (when the price of gold was $264 per ounce).
In contrast, on Feb. 2, 2009, Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Officer for Merrill Lynch was actually quoted as predicting gold going to $1,500 per ounce within the next 12-15 months.
Not only do groups like Claim-GV put out misinformation, but they propagate misinformation put out by other anti-mining groups, often without knowing it.
If Claim-GV is really interested in the community, I challenge them to work with the city and mine corporation in a proactive and positive way to build a better project.
The mine corporation looks forward to addressing all concerns raised through the public comment period for the draft EIR. We look forward to building a project that is environmentally and socially responsible and will benefit the community.
David Watkinson is president and COO of Emgold Mining Corp., president of Idaho-Maryland Mining Corp., and vice president of Golden Bear Ceramics Co.
I appreciate Claim-GV’s right to oppose the Idaho-Maryland project. However, the public needs to be aware that much of the information being put out by this group is incorrect, misleading, and designed to deceive and create fear in the public. In response to some of the inaccuracies in Mr. Pasner’s letter:
The Idaho-Maryland Mine is not in the city limits of Grass Valley. Part of the project area is planned for annexation into the city as part of its 2020 general plan and part would remain in the county. Annexing would enable the city to collect sales tax from the project.
Mr. Pasner states that there are no hard rock metal mines operating inside city limits in California. No major operating hard rock metal mines existed in California as recently as 2007 (source: USGS). At that time, two gold mines were still recovering gold from heap leach operations, but not mining.
In 2008, both the Briggs Mine and Mesquite Mine reopened in California. It is hard to have a metal mine within city limits when there are no mines left in the state.
Many operating mines, both open-pit and underground, are within or adjacent to cities.
Examples include Hutchinson Salt Mine, Bingham Canyon Mine (copper), Windsor Salt Mine, Red Lake Mine (gold), and Thompson Mine (nickel), just to name a few. Hundreds of quarries are located in cities — Perkins Quarry in Sacramento would be a good example.
The ceramics plant would not be visible from most of Grass Valley. It definitely would not be visible from the Nevada County Contractor’s Office, City Hall or the Board of Realtor’s office as Pasner claims.
It would be partially visible from the hospital, which is on a hill directly above the project. The mine buildings would be hidden behind a buffer of trees along Idaho-Maryland Road. Visual simulations of the buildings can be found at www.idaho-maryland.com under “Project Description.”
The photo renderings (not the artistic renderings) show what the mine site would look like once it is built. Buildings have been designed to look like a business park and at closure the buildings and site would be transformed into a business park.
There would not be 300 private wells affected by the dewatering of the mine. The draft environmental impact report indicates an area where potentially 30 wells could be impacted.
Claim-GV’s economic analysis of the mining project that Mr. Pasner indicates is forthcoming should be interesting. I expect it will be similar to their jobs analysis, which concludes: “According to Idaho-Maryland Mine’s projections of 400 permanent jobs, only about 103 jobs lasting more than 12 years could go to current Grass Valley area residents, with a real possibility that as few as 26 jobs would go to local residents. And if there is no ceramics plant, these numbers plummet to 51 and 13 respectively.” I suggest you try to follow their math.
The reality is that the mine would provide over 400 high-paying jobs for 20 years. Half of these jobs will go to local residents. (See chart above.)
Many of the anti-mining links on the Claim-GV Web site also contain misinformation.
For example, their link to “Gold is the Duddest of Dud Investments” quotes Merrill Lynch as saying gold is a poor investment and portrays the article as being written Feb. 2, 2009. The original article was actually written in 2001 titled, “Fool’s Gold, 10 Problems with Gold Mining” by Project Underground of Berkeley (when the price of gold was $264 per ounce).
In contrast, on Feb. 2, 2009, Gary Dugan, Chief Investment Officer for Merrill Lynch was actually quoted as predicting gold going to $1,500 per ounce within the next 12-15 months.
Not only do groups like Claim-GV put out misinformation, but they propagate misinformation put out by other anti-mining groups, often without knowing it.
If Claim-GV is really interested in the community, I challenge them to work with the city and mine corporation in a proactive and positive way to build a better project.
The mine corporation looks forward to addressing all concerns raised through the public comment period for the draft EIR. We look forward to building a project that is environmentally and socially responsible and will benefit the community.
David Watkinson is president and COO of Emgold Mining Corp., president of Idaho-Maryland Mining Corp., and vice president of Golden Bear Ceramics Co.
