California is run by a pack of environmental sicko freaks. Anyone that has a question about that should access the website of the Original Sixteen to One Mine Inc. at http://www.origsix.com to read about their horror story in the forum section. The State once attempted to convict the company and its president and mine manager of manslaughter charges for an accidental death in the mine some years back. Prior to the unfortunate accident, the fed's were in the mine days earlier and deemed their operation safe by their standards.

The California Central Water Board is as unfriendly to these folks as they could possibly be for issuing numerous citations lacking intelligent justification. One reason for writing the mine so many tickets could be that their salaries at the agency are solely dependent on fees derived from so-called infractions of their rules book. Anyway, the story is on their website in detail.

Some time in the future, the bureaucrats in Sacramento will get-it that rejuvenating the gold mining industry is in their best financial interests. Holding up the Idaho Maryland Mine from reopening for so many years does not speak well for increasing the State's revenues, getting people back to work and thus pumping in some additional money to a continuously contracting State economy where the State's unemployment numbers far exceed the nation's average.

The State needs to get educated on what is possible if they are to escape bankruptcy with some help being extended to them by supporting their own mining industry. The solution is to talk to the government in Quebec, follow their receipt for success in assisting mining companies to grow and prosper which has resulted in keeping a lot of folks working who in turn keep those local economies vibrant. There is no better example of what is possible than seeing how Agnico Eagle grew to such a large international company by the support provided to them and other miners by the Quebec government in making available a friendly mining environment combined with appropriate and intelligent environmental safegards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/us/11gold.html?_r=1&emc=eta1