NEVADA CITY, Calif. April 21, 2010 - Charles P. Watson, President and Chief Geologist of Advanced Geologic Exploration, has been diligently working for Blue Lead Mine LLC, one of his clients. Blue Lead will appear before the Nevada County Planning Commission on Thursday afternoon to try to obtain a "vested right to mine" on their three parcels located in the You Bet Mining District.
In his spare time, Watson is selling mining claims. According to his company's website, "Advanced Geologic Exploration is selling a few of their prized placer gold claims."
The list of claims is long, with listings in Plumas and Nevada County.
Described as "five patented placer mining claims totalling about 356 acres for sale in the You-Bet Red Dog Mining District in Nevada County, CA. The properties are private lands and may have vested mining rights."
The description of the Smith&Powell property includes this section on permitting:
The Lead Agency for the permitting process is Nevada County. State Office of Mines and Reclamation and the State Mining and Geology Board will play key rolls in maintaining compliance with the Reclamation Plan. Other regulatory agencies will also maintain oversight capacities to ensure compliance to specific laws.
Given that the properties have been extensively mined before and that they were left in a "devastated" condition, Nevada County and the State of California would be in favor of moving a permit forward. Advanced Geologic can coordinate your mining permits. We are currently permitting a nearby mine in the same district and, therefore, have substantial experience to bring with our professional work.
While these large-scale mining permits are being procured, a smaller "exploration permit" can be arranged so that small-scale mining can be conducted.
A nearby mine owner is seeking to have the vested mining rights granted by the patents for his property acknowledged for the existing mine patents. If the vested mining rights are acknowledged, then many of the current Nevada County ordinances, rules and guidelines will not apply. This will greatly streamline the approval process.
Advanced Geologic is facilitating the sale of the property for a 2.5% finders fee. We can also have you up and running with an exploration permit usuallyin [sic] less than 30 days.
The repeated mention of possible vested mining rights in the sales pitch for these properties might explain Watson's efforts to push Blue Lead's application for vested rights.
The mining claim listings, especially the description of the permitting process, appear to demonstrate the potential wide-reaching consequences of the Planning Commission's upcoming decision. If Blue Lead LLC is granted vested mining rights, a precedent would be set in Nevada County that could lead to many more minimally-regulated mining operations.
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