The Sugar Pine Mine is located on lands managed by the BLM on Galice Creek, a tributary of the world famous Wild and Scenic Rogue River.
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| After BLM's decade long struggle to bring the operators of the Leopold Mine on Galice Creek into compliance with regulations, this is what part of the mine site looked like. |
According to Reuters:
Previously, one of the co-owners of the Sugar Pine mining claim was on local TV calling the BLM's actions a "land grab." He compared it to telling someone they had to leave their home.
However, since the federal government has title to the surface of the land that the Sugar Pine Mine is located on—and has authority to regulate activities on it—his accusation of land grab has no foundation in law. Read about who holds the title to federal lands where mining claims are located here.
While calling for peaceful protests, the miners are is still using inflammatory rhetoric on their websites and the Reuters' article quotes a BLM spokesperson as saying while they've dealt with numerous non-compliance issues in past they've never seen a response at this scale. He added that:
"The miners argue they have exclusive surface rights and do not have to follow federal regulations."The miners are wrong. Read about the BLM's authority to regulate the mining and occupancy of federal mining claims on public lands here, here and here.
Previously, one of the co-owners of the Sugar Pine mining claim was on local TV calling the BLM's actions a "land grab." He compared it to telling someone they had to leave their home.
However, since the federal government has title to the surface of the land that the Sugar Pine Mine is located on—and has authority to regulate activities on it—his accusation of land grab has no foundation in law. Read about who holds the title to federal lands where mining claims are located here.
While calling for peaceful protests, the miners are is still using inflammatory rhetoric on their websites and the Reuters' article quotes a BLM spokesperson as saying while they've dealt with numerous non-compliance issues in past they've never seen a response at this scale. He added that:
"There are folks who are armed in the area and we've asked our employees to stay out of the area around the mine, just to be on the safe side,"Read previous posts on the Sugar Pine Mine controversy:
- Sugar Pine Mine - When is a mining claim private property? (Provides legal citation for process needed to determine property rights on federal mining claims. The Sugar Pine claim has not be subject to this process. Also provides links to recent news stories)
- Sugar Pine Mine - What does the law say? (Discusses authority of the BLM to regulate activities on mining claims like the Sugar Pine claim).
- Sugar Pine Mine - Medford Mail Tribune got it right (Provides links to BLM's regulations for occupancy of federal mining claims and other information).
For the full Reuters article:
- Reuters April 22, 2015 - Miners call for peaceful protest after enlisting armed guards.
