To the Friends of the Panamints

Revised Exploration EA is Available

DVNP has serious reservations.

Map of exploration roads omitted.

Oct 16, 2002

BLM has released a revision to the EA describing proposed exploration roads north of the current Briggs open-pit cyanide heap-leach mine in Panamint Valley. Some 55 letters to the BLM were sent concerning this proposal. BLM identified 46 ‘distinguishable areas of concern’.

Printed copies of the revised document were sent to those who sent comments on the original EA. Others will have to download from the BLM website:

http://www.ca.blm.gov/ridgecrest/

or go directly to the site’s page that has links to the revised EA:

http://www.ca.blm.gov/ridgecrest/cecil_r._jackson_exploration_e.html

BLM is inviting responses to the revised EA. Their deadline is Nov. 8. This is 30 days after the revised EA was put on their website and printed copies were mailed. Please download and read from the website. We are in the process of analyzing the revised EA—you can help by looking at the documents and emailing me your thoughts.

The revised EA is downloadable in sections, in PDF format. The most important are Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 5.

1. Cecil R. Jackson Revised EA — is the document that was revised – 31 pages.

2. Figures, 1,2,3,4 — general area maps, and detail maps of existing roads in the exploration area. The map of proposed new exploration roads, sent to me by BLM after the original EA was released, is not in the revised EA.

3. BLM Proposed Mitigation Measures — a list of 18 rules to be obeyed during the exploration.

4. EA Comments Received Appendix 1 — BLM assigned numbers to each comment (‘area of concern’) in letters received. This is BLM’s listing of comment numbers in each of the letters.

5. EA Collected Comments Responses Appendix 1 — is a list of the 46 comments (‘the distinguishable areas of concern’), and the BLM’s responses to each.

6. Vegetative Information Appendix 2 — 30 pages of text, plus references, plus 34 pages (approx) of tables, charts, xeroxed photos and xeroxed maps.

7. Cultural Appendix 3 — has three parts:

§   An interesting 41-page section: Historic Mines of the Southern Panamints: A Cultural Resources Inventory of the Cecil R – Jackson Exploration Project. Besides an assessment and recommendations section, it describes the history of the area – both prehistoric and historic.

§  The 1½ page cumulative impact section of the EIS written in 1995 for the current Briggs Mine.

§   Another interesting section—12 pages—describing Timbisha related issues and concerns.

Noticeably missing from the downloads are copies of all letters received — socially the most interesting reading. Most express reservations about the project. Example: DVNP’s letter is highly critical of BLM’s treatment of the cumulative impact of Canyon Resource’s past, present and future operations, of the visual degradation of the Panamint slope, and of the effect on the Panamint’s bighorn sheep.

Some names to get straight, for the record, emphasized by BLM personnel:

§   The name of this project is Cecil R / Jackson Exploration, not Briggs. It’s separate from the CR Briggs mine. It’s not an extension of the current Briggs Mine.

§   The ‘miner’ is Canyon Resources Corporation (Golden, CO). Of course, they are the company operating the existing mine, the CR Briggs mine.

Tom Budlong, TomBudlong@Bigfoot.com (Email comments, and to be added or removed from the list.)

Website – pictures, the EA, notices…: http://home.earthlink.net/~bobellisds/BriggsMine/PanamintValleyMainPage.htm