By: Ralph Silberstein, Citizen Looking at Impacts of Mining GV (CLAIM-GV)
GRASS VALLEY, August 14, 2011 - I wish to thank the authors of recent pro-mine letters in local media outlets for participating in the debate about Emgold's proposed Idaho-Maryland Mine, Tile Factory, and Aggregate Plant in Grass Valley.
While it may be both tempting and entertaining to respond to some of the off-topic diatribes, I think it is much more important for the community to undertake a serious and factually based examination of the very real and imminent risks of this massive project.
The following information comes from the official Idaho-Maryland Mine project documents that were submitted to the City of Grass Valley, and they are available for public viewing at both the City's website and via the CLAIM-GV website (www.claim-gv.org). Please take an interest in this project and view the documents yourself.
1) The project will produce significant air-pollution. This will be caused by diesel exhaust, dust, chemicals, and emissions from burning incredible amounts of natural gas. The added pollution will negatively impact the health of people in our community.
2) Large noisy trucks will be motoring through town on average every 6-7 minutes, day and night. The trucks will run on Tinloy St., through several congested stop-and-go intersections.
3) The project depends upon a ceramics factory to process tailings by fusing 50 tons/hour of ground rock into tile, and then selling these tiles. (Note that the housing market has collapsed and no financial feasibility study has been produced showing a market exists for these tiles.)
4) The project depends upon grinding, selling, and shipping up to 800 tons/day of aggregate throughout most of the life of the project.
5) The General Plan designates the prime 102-acre Idaho-Maryland site as Business Park and Medium Density Housing, one of the few large tracts of land within the 2 mile nucleus of Grass Valley. Tailings piles and heavy equipment are a non-compatible usage of this property. Local property owners may suffer economic loss. Tourism may be impacted negatively. High tech companies may move elsewhere.
6) Local aquifers risk being drained due to the de-watering of the many miles of abandon mine shafts that run under Grass Valley and the excavation of new tunnels. The underground mine covers a 2800 acre area and it will be de-watered to depths of 8000 feet.
7) About half of the tailings will be backfilled into the mine, raising the possibility of yet more future mine drainage problems.
8) Thousands of pounds of toxic cyanide will be trucked in monthly and stored on site, with 192 pounds per day lost in processing. In addition, 54,000 pounds of explosives will be trucked in monthly and stored in temporary surface magazines.
9) The ever inflated job numbers are not verified by any relevant economic studies, but what the documents do tell us is that the maximum projected number of jobs for the project is LESS than the projected number of jobs if Grass Valley follows the General Plan over the life of the project. Note that none of the jobs are guaranteed, but what is stated is that about half of the jobs will go to non-locals. Of course, just like in 1956, all of the Idaho-Maryland jobs will end when the ore ceases to be economically recoverable, or 20 years of production, whichever comes first.
And finally, please take note that Emgold's official renderings of the project are not accurate. They do not show the tailings piles, the conveyors, the rock crushing facilities, the stockpiled tile, the heavy equipment, the hundreds of parked cars, the factory chimneys, and the steam plumes. They don't even show all of the buildings that are planned.
CLAIM-GV is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to informing Western Nevada County about the true facts surrounding the Idaho Maryland Mine Project. Website: www.claim-gv.org
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