AMRA in DC, Right to Mine Progress!

Post by Shannon Poe on 2/10/26:

Some things just make you shake your head in disbelief.

In the past 7 days our phone has rang every single day with miners across the west have significant problems we thought were slowly changing under the Trump Administration. Trump ordered permitting to be expedited and now we hear some in the USFS and BLM are still ignoring that order.

A miner down on the East Fork San Gabriel (So Cal) had his truck towed/confiscated because he was allegedly mining (panning and sluicing). The LEO who towed the truck said "the 1870 mining act is no longer valid". Hmm, kinda think we would have heard of that being overturned since it takes a significant majority of congress and damn near an act of God.

Oregon...another miner is being denied his PoO (Plan of Operations) for a very small-scale operation and are ignoring the regulatory instruments in place for them. According to 36 CFR 228.5, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is required to analyze a proposed plan of operations and notify the operator of its decision within 30 days of receiving the plan. This miner is being told they may get to it in 2027.

A miner in NorCal is having his NOI (Notice of Intent) ignored to use an RS2477 road (a road in the public domain (public lands) which predates FLPMA (Federal Lands Policy Management Act of 1976 and is required to remain open in almost all cases). The problem is the USFS/BLM and EPA has room for interpretation and not defined laws/regulations and/or procedures.

We could go on and on, but just recently we are seeing a recurring theme here...big government is ignoring the President in our opinion and ignoring the law. Why? Because there's no accountability.

We proposed the Accountability Act to Congress about the time Covid broke out and our trip to introduce it in D.C. was cancelled by Nancy Pelosi.

AMRA's President will be in Washington D.C. in 12 days to discuss the Accountability Act (modeled after the Veterans Administration Accountability Act), land patents, defining what a dredge is and doesn't do (pollute) IE... add pollutants to any waterway as a dredge cleans the stream and should be encouraged. How much money rural counties and states are losing by these unfounded moratoriums and prohibitions on dredging.

We hope this administration is willing to fight for the small-scale miner as hard as he has for the large-scale miner.