Sunday, April 26, 2015

Oregon Gold Mine Property Rights

Armed Oregon protesters gather at Bureau of Land Management office over mine dispute, report says, Posted on April 25, 2015 Written by foxnews.com
FA Note — Courts have long rec­og­nized the Act of July 26, 1866, and May 10, 1872 as amended, whereby Con­gress abdi­cated its author­ity and juris­dic­tion over the min­eral estate, grant­ing it as an absolute gift with­out con­di­tion or lim­i­ta­tion to all citizens.
More than 100 demon­stra­tors, some of them armed, report­edly sur­rounded the Bureau of Land Management’s Med­ford, Ore­gon dis­trict office Thurs­day to protest the agency’s reg­u­la­tions against a rural gold mine.
Sup­port­ers of the Sugar Pine mine tell the Mail Tri­bune that Bureau of Land Man­age­ment (BLM) offi­cials lied when they said mine own­ers George Backes and Rick Bar­clay needed to file a plan with the agency for what they called pre­vi­ously unknown min­ing activ­ity. The agency told Backes and Bar­clay that they had to file a plan or remove their equipment.
Some of the pro­test­ers who con­gre­gated in the agency’s park­ing lot were mem­bers of the Oath Keep­ers move­ment, an orga­ni­za­tion made up of for­mer and cur­rent law enforce­ment per­son­nel who vow to dis­obey gov­ern­ment orders they deem unconstitutional.
Mary Emer­ick, a spokes­woman for the Oath Keep­ers, told the Mail Tri­bune that vol­un­teers from the orga­ni­za­tion have been guard­ing the mine. She said those vol­un­teers came from var­i­ous parts of the west­ern U.S.
The armed vol­un­teers started show­ing up last week after Bar­clay called upon them because he was afraid the agency would seize the equipment.
The min­ers con­tend they legally con­trol all of the land and resources within the claim, which they say has been con­tin­u­ously mined since the 1800s. The agency has said the land belongs to the fed­eral gov­ern­ment and the min­ers have to file a plan of oper­a­tions if they want to con­tinue work­ing in the area.
“(The min­ers) have a par­tic­u­lar inter­pre­ta­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion that has not been rec­og­nized by any fed­eral court,” BLM spokesman Tom Gorey told the Mail Tri­bune.
Although Bar­clay did call upon the armed vol­un­teers, he is look­ing to dis­tance him­self from any actions that could repli­cate what hap­pened in Nevada last year.
In that case, hun­dreds of armed sup­port­ers of rancher Cliven Bundy faced off against BLM agents in April to stop a roundup of cat­tle from pub­lic land where Bundy had allowed his stock to graze near the town of Bunkerville.
Fed­eral offi­cials accused Bundy of fail­ing to pay more than $1 mil­lion in graz­ing fees over more than 20 years. Bundy claimed the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has no author­ity over the land.
Bureau offi­cials backed off, and Bundy and his sup­port­ers declared vic­tory. But BLM offi­cials say they are still pur­su­ing an admin­is­tra­tive and legal res­o­lu­tion of the dispute.
“We are not look­ing for Bundyville. We are not look­ing to chal­lenge any­thing. We are just hold­ing our con­sti­tu­tional rights and prop­erty rights in reserve until we get our day in court,” Bar­clay said.
Accord­ing to agency offi­cials, the min­ers have filed an appeal to the Inte­rior Board of Land Appeals and a court date is expected to be deter­mined by the board.
Gorey said the board is the “proper venue” for the min­ers’ claim to surface.
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