A friend of mine in the States contacted me this morning about the following issue, an issue that's getting lots of media attention over in the USofA, and nothing here. Galice Mining District of Josephine County OR's Sugar Pine Mine... you've never heard about it, right? So, what's going on?
What's Going On in Galice - The SHORT Answer...
The short version of what's going on in Galice is this - the Sugar Pine Mine is what's known as a 'Pre-55' claim. That means it was established before the Surface Resources Act was put in place in 1955 and as such the mine controls the SURFACE, unlike other, regular mining claims, which only have rights to the minerals BENEATH the surface. BLM (Bureau of Land Management) is unlawfully trying to take the Surface Rights from the Sugar Pine Mine in order to dictate to us what we can and cannot do.
Here's a quote from this morning's correspondence from those involved...
We used to own this mine and Kerby still handles all the legal paperwork and research for it and we're in the middle of a constitutional and mining law battle with BLM. We've been hard at work getting the word out (which is hard since the Oath Keepers have moved in and basically hijacked the whole media side) and the media is screaming about "Bundy Ranch-Style Stand-Off" and "Bundy Ranch Part II."Now, we find that Google and every other search engine we checked has blocked all our pages - the blog, Kerby's Facebook page, everything.