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GREETINGS to our new website.
The FORUM began in the late 1990’s at origsix.com. Do to its age a modern website became necessary. Here it is; however all the transaction from origsix.com during the transition are not yet available on the site. Our original website will remain. Welcome and enjoy your journey with the oldest USA gold mining corporation. Participate using either or both sites.We were able to put the entire MSHA Brief on the web sit but not in the FORUM for you to enjoy. This is my small way to help Americans. How and Why?
Our public is ignorant about the necessities and benefits of the well run Natural Resource industries.
Go to the HOME PAGE.Under “Latest News” click “Respondents Post- Hearing Brief.” Perhaps think of it as a non fiction novel
I think the water / arsenic issue is still there…
Good news! Are there any other legal issues that our company is involved in?
Below is news, important news. If you appreciate gold mining, natural resource production or the Sixteen to One crowd, you will be pleased. If the topic seems strange, unimportant or unfamiliar, give it a try to absorb its meaning and significance.
A federal Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA) hearing was held commencing
August 9, 2017, in Nevada City. There were two dockets. The first docket had two citations and is currently under a briefing schedule by the Mine and Secretary of Labor. The second had nine citations and two orders to litigate. The meeting was conducted by William B. Moran, an administration law judge (ALJ) based in Washington D.C. Today I received a DISMISSAL ORDER from Judge Moran with prejudice.A 100% dismissal is a rare admission by the Secretary of Labor (MSHA) and the equivalent of a cancellation. All alleged wrong doings by the Sixteen to One miners and operator just disappeared as if they never occurred. The judge wrote “with prejudice” as an adjudication upon the merits and operates as a bar to future action. Another choice for the judge is a Dismissal without Prejudice. This usually means an indication that the dismissal affects no right or remedy of the parties (ours and MSHA). The decision is not on the merits and does not bar a subsequent suit on the same citations. You probably think I am elated with this news. Yes and no. Please read on.
The order dismissing our proceedings listed one old case (Lehigh Cement) considered by the ALJ that he heard in 2010. MSHA exhibited unusual behavior with Lehigh and Original Sixteen to One Min Inc. The joint motion9 MSHA & Lehigh) describes a “proposed settlement motion” for the citations as “vacated.” The joint motion was a peculiar submission in that it recites the penalty criteria then MSHA agrees to vacate [the two citations]. The Joint Motion concludes that “approval of this settlement is in the public interest and will further the intent and purpose of the [Mine Act]. This action by MSHA or more likely its lawyers caused me great wonderment.
The decision continues, “Normally, a settlement motion arises in the context of the parties’ negotiation of the particular citations listed, and more often than not, at least some of the citations are settled for an amount which is less than the penalty sums originally proposed. Where all of the citations in a given docket are vacated, as in this instance, the description of the result as a “settlement motion” seems inapt. Here, the Joint Motion seeks dismissal of the petition for the assessment of civil penalty. The question is whether a motion seeking a judge’s approval to dismiss a matter should be denominated as a “settlement.”
I not only agree with the ALJ, but what are the merits/reasons for MSHA to vacate all our citations? It wasn’t a settlement for no input given by operator? It must be somethings testified to under oath in the August hearing. But what are they?
An ALJ explained to me that the federal review commission has the right and responsibility to protect miners, operators and the public, who pay for all this regulation. What if MSHA and an unscrupulous mine operator conspired to reduce citations for the benefit of both parties? Shouldn’t the instances of this matter be recorded in a public hearing? These are good questions. For now, I can only surmise the reason all citations in this docket vanished, which I will later.
Case Law:
Cuyahoga Valley Ry. Co. v. United Transportation Union, 474 U.S. 3 (1985), held that the Secretary has the authority to vacate citations and that such actions are not review able. In Cuyahoga the Supreme Court noted the distinct roles of the Commission and Secretary of Labor as adjudicator and prosecutor, respectively, and that Congress did not intend a commingling of those roles. In this 2010 hearing the ALJ concluded: “ As at least the title, if not the substance, of the Joint Motion is to dismiss the petition for the assessment of the civil penalty in this docket, and as such action does not require Commission approval, the proceeding has become moot and therefore this matter is DISMISSED, with prejudice.”What were the merits of our August, 2017, hearing in Nevada City? It wasn’t a joint settlement because Sixteen to One was not a part of any settlement. It wasn’t even a settlement; however it was an admission by MSHA of something legally wrong. Nine citations have nine different standards for compliance. How could an inspector be wrong on nine citations in one inspection?
My experiences with inspectors actually predate the formation of MSHA. I enjoyed many conversations about every aspect of mining with inspectors. They felt comfortable telling me their stories as well. Years ago mine inspectors held onto the ability to judge a situation according to the specific things he saw, his strong background in the industry, his belief in what his role was and the standards established by Congress. Not so today. Very few situations are universally alike; however, the root of these standards is the health and safety of miners. But ones judgement does not come solely from books. What happened here? Were all citations written improperly? Doubtful. Without going crazy with wild speculations the conclusion most likely centers on the inspector.
Here it is. AN ACT, passed in the US Congress in 1977, has a Section 505: INSPECTORS; QUALIFICATIONS; TRAINING. It says, “Persons appointed as authorized representatives of the Secretary shall be qualified by practical experience in mining or by experience as a practical mining engineer or by education.” The inspector who wrote the nine citations and two orders had never worked in a mine. He was not a mining engineer nor did he have the formal education to meet this qualification. This language was specifically written by US Senators, Congressmen and other government and mining executives to insure the safety of those in the natural resources extraction industry. This industry was recognized in the law as a foundation for all other industries. Our government and private sectors knew this important fact.
The August 2017 hearing was more about the future than for monetary penalties. I want you to know what goes on in the trenches in my industry. Thank you for taking the time to learn. My conclusion is: someone, somewhere realized that the shadowy enforcement by unqualified inspectors cannot be continued. This inspector (and I suspect others as well) did not meet the legal requirement to issue citations and extract penalties from the Sixteen to One mine in Alleghany, California. Whoever you were, thank you, all of you. Keep up the good work towards responsible enforcement of important regulations.
Whew!! Glad this obscure subject is over and I hope you stuck it out to read. Truth like gold lies at the bottom.
My phone rang this morning from a fellow I’ve had many Sixteen to One related conversations but never met. My annual message to shareholders triggered his call. Our lengthy talk pleased both of us. If you haven’t read the April 22, 2017 letter (mailed May 15th), you can find it On the FORUM Topic: Correspondence from the President of OAU. Mining life is good. It can and will get better and surpass great in the days ahead of us.
After this phone conversation as I was rethinking each other’s words, it seemed appropriate to critic the past. With a 164 year old past it could take hours even for me. How trying it could be for those without my background! I looked to the FORUM a place for real history and saw a very important topic without an entry in seven and a half years. I scrolled to the first entry by gfxgold in 2002, reading forward in time.The Two-headed Front again arises from the ash of nothingness, the Phoenix of California gold miners on 09/05/2009. For those who wrote under this topic, your thought and words are the clackers in the bells of liberty. “For the times they are a-changin’.” Happy birthday to Bob Dylan born today, May 24, 1941. If you are new to the FORUM or haven’t read this topic since 2009, and have a future interest in gold mining, go to the first entry and read forward in time.
“The Times They Are A-Changin'”
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.It’s an old story, when governments require more money as a result of fiscal mismanagement(of course they’ll call it other things) just take it from the ones that have it and the heck with Accounting 101.
By: Reuters
1st October 2009
MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Congress is considering a 4 percent tax on mining output as part of a fiscal reform package meant to boost government revenues during a steep recession.I agree with you Bluejay, your essay is excellent, send it to the Sacramento Bee, or the Chronicle.
The Dark Side Of California, Anti-Mining.
California was once a proud producer of gold. San Francisco was built from the gold that came from the placer deposits and hard rock mines of the Mother Lode all up and down Highway 49.
When California should be a thriving gold producer again with its price at a all-time high of $1060.00, excessive environmental controls, well above world and Canadian standards, restrain the owners of prospective gold properties from seeking, what used to be the “American Dream.”
Instead the government in Sacramento shows absoltely no respect for what gold mining used to represent in job security for Californians. Millions of ounces of gold have been taken from streambeds throughout the state and from its deep mines. As early as 1775 along the Colorado River early Spanish explorers first discovered placer gold. Some of the richest placers were in the Columbia Basin-Jamestown Sonora District which have produced 5.9 million ounces of gold or 183 tons. Locally owned businesses and prospectors poured all this money back into the State economy. Sure, the placers have been greatly depleted but the discovery from further exploration will produce great quantities of the metal from California’s yet to be discovered hard rock mines.
Mike had a plan but we had to spend our time and money to defend ourselves from outrageous claims with all the obstreperous chatter and negative publicity that followed along with egregious court decisions. Want to find out about the legal system today? One only has to google Martin Armstrong to gets his perspective.
More spectacular gold production came from the the Grass Valley-Nevada City District in Nevada County which produced 10.4 million ounces of gold or 323 tons, plus 2.2 million ounces or 68.4 tons of placer gold.
Today with enormous amounts of gold to be mined and yet found, the State representatives continue to act like morons by sactioning crippling attacks on gold property owners with no moral justification along with exhibiting their narrow-minded self interests yet to be determined. A group of appointed State employees make up rules just so they interpret them the way they want to bleed property owners. The Water Board’s demand for money from a historical gold producer who contributed to California’s rich history and supported its past healthy economy is just abrasively nonsensical and just plain silly.
California is financially sinking into a black hole with no hopes on the horizon. One hope could be revitalizing mining and putting folks back to work. Instead of supporting mining the State prefers to handicap miners with their rules and regulations.
Our neighbor to the north, Canada, prides itself on supporting mining and the many jobs that it creates for their citizens. Quebec is the best place in the world for mine owners and workers and YES, the miners safeguard Mother Nature. The Quebec miners and their families laugh and shake their heads when the topic of California mining comes up.
Canada actually has tax incentives in place to encourage investment for exploration and mineral production. The Provincial governemnts even lend money to explorers. In Newfoundland and Labrador they have a Junior Exploration Assistance Program. Mountain Lake Resources was recently given $100,000 to assist it in locating mineral resources. This is just one tiny example of government support.
The fact of the matter for me is that the State will be destroyed by people who think THEIR answer for direction is the only way. What a bunch of knot-heads!
Prediction: California will be the first State in the Union to declare bankruptcy. When this happens, State appointed Water Board members won’t have their overpaid jobs anymore and will be on the corner selling apples with the miners that they permanently put out of work. I wouldn’t want to be them when the cement sidewalk turf wars begin.
A few words from John Embry:
http://www.b-tv.com/features/watch-now/watch-now-enlarged.html?clip=JohnEmbryep211.wmv
We all need to take this whole thing to another level. Here we are preaching to the choir on this web-site. Let’s put our heads together using technology and the certain current awareness and under-current dissatisfaction with the the non-freedom movement.
Please blog this on other sites, copy to MySpace, Twitter, FaceBook, and all the rest.
I don’t think people are even aware of history anymore, let alone the real-time supressive crap that is stiffling this potential and our collective future.
All assets are being targeted by the State and the Federal governments because these people are financial failures at managing the general affairs of their constituents.
Gerald Celente stated this year that America’s second revolution has already started, public protests are just the beginning, he says.
I recently read that ammunition sales have been brisk and that there is a shortage of available supplies. I wonder what’s on the mind of the buyers?
Just finished sending Assembly Member Noreen Evans from the 7th District my feeling concerning the Water Board’s illegal attempt at trying to put us all out of business.
All interested parties need to e-mail their Sacramento representatives. The next step should be to march on the State Capitol, get the local news crews out there and have either Jason or Mike explain the facts of life concerning arsenic in Kanaka Creek.
Focus.
The purpose isn’t to “get permission”….the government answers to us, unless we drop the ball and forget why we’re free.
No more time to ask permission from the seated idiots. It’s time to act, not re-act.
If you want right some one in Sacramento, write the governor he does have more respect for the need of the economics of gold production to help turn this economy around.
Assembly Person Noreen Evans is the co Author of Sb670, the no dredging law. She is another person in the State Legislature who has very little compassion for miners rights, nor shows much respect for the will of her constituency. She needs to be recalled.
I have just forwarded the Mountain Messenger article to State Senator Patricia Wiggins representing my District in hopes of opening some eyes in the State Senate as to the childish behavior and incompetence of the Central Valley Water District Agency.
More should chime in with their State representatives.
The Mountain Messenger newspaper published its opinion on State Water Board treatment in rural Sierra County in its September 3, 2009 issue. Find it on this web site under NEWS.
Bluejay, in response to your suggestion below:
September 8, 2009
Dear Dr. Tomas Chaize
A gentleman interested in international gold mining recently presented you to me. I contact you to introduce the gold producing company in California, which I have held the office of President for over twenty years.
Due to some unusual interferences and very poor production in 2007, our performance requires and will improve with an infusion of working capital. China seems to have an awakening to the future value of gold and seems to have the dollars to consider investing in gold mining. (Americans with large amounts of dollars seem to ignore gold as a valuable asset).
Original Sixteen to One Mine, Inc is the oldest American gold mining corporation still operating. It has much undeveloped property and a strong record of proven production. It has sound plans to develop its mines beyond the current activity, especially as gold hovers around the exchange rate of $1000 for one ounce of gold.
Securing working capital is my highest priority. You are invited to examine the company for the possibility of introducing this rare opportunity to take part in the on going development of one of the world’s most under achieving gold districts. The Company realizes that potential investors may have varying reasons for investing. We are creative and are willing to adjust the return of capital and profit to suit the investor.
Please contact me so I know you received this invitation. Your questions will receive a quick reply.
Michael M. Miller
President and DirectorHere’s the link:
The link below is to an article concerning China’s growing appetite for natural resources, especially oil. It is written by Thomas Chaize from France. Mr Chaize has done some important work in the past concerning “Peak Gold.”
Below is an excerpt from a Tanzanian Royalty(TRE-ASE) report further down:
Here’s a name of a Chinese company that could have an interest in joining with us in the search for more prized high grade gold discoveries, Beijing Songshanheli Mining Investment Company.
“In his capacity as the most senior political officer of Tanzanian Royalty, Mr. Kahama was responsible for introducing the corporation to The People’s Republic of China. The company’s Mining Option and Royalty Agreement with the Beijing Songshanheli Mining Investment Company signed in February 2009 was greatly a product of his efforts.”
There are hundreds upon hundreds of creeks and other waterways clearly present on the many topographical maps of California. It certainly makes one wonder why the State jackasses require so much from us when there is no change in the composition of running water in Kanaka Creek from one boundry of our property/claim lines to the next.
America is waking up to corrupt and/or silly ways of administering the people’s will by their elected officials, officials that are soon to be out of work and on food stamps.
The following are some independent thoughts from a Texan who has clear sight as events unfold before his very eyes. If anyone doesn’t believe that Texas is a growing hot spot for resistance as our rights get trampled by politicians they just have to tune in to Alex Jones from Austin or Charley Jones from Dallas to see that these guys mean business.
Mrsoul, your perspective from abroad [Switzerland?] seems to be the preferred one according to those on this forum, and I have $10K that will wager Obama will not last beyond 4 years, if that. His approval rating has dropped from 65% to 45% for a reason, and from my perspective it is really about public distrust of his administration’s all out progressive power grab for the transforming of America through an orchestrated economic destruction by the the elite who control the radical left.
And yes, the Bushs’ were grass snakes as well. Poppa Bush’s father, Preston, was a German banker who helped fund fascist Hitler into power after the orchestrated Weimer Republic hyperinflation of 1921-1923 as paper money became totally worthless….ring any bells? Nothing really changes as power, envy and greed turn the cyclical wheels of time. Few live long enough to experience previous money clensings, and that is precisely why they can reoccur.
By the way, Van Jones, one of Obama’s first appointed and closest czars, has just last night resigned his Green Czar position after it was exopsed that he is a self espoused communist and signed on as a “9-11 truther” in 2002, claiming the U.S. govt helped to enable the 9-11 attacks. The press has barely reported this event. There are at least 5 other czars with radical left pasts, so the fun has barely started. Now I ask you why Obama would personally appoint these czars who can by bypass congressional process? These are the poeple he has chosen to enrich his ear in the White House. I respectfully submit that there is such mind blowing stuff going on with these power agendas, that health carre reform is simply one of many diversionary side shows.
Yes, Congress has been lobbied to corrupt excess, but they are now getting it big time from the awakening sheoples for spending this country into oblivion. This has been BOTH a Republican AND Democrat agenda. Yes, Medicare, Social Security, FDIC, Fannie and Freddie, and most banks are technically busted, but as long as Bernanke and the Fed can bid on their own treasury auctions and impose quantitative easing, the Ponzi scheme can go longer, but it will collapse with THIS administration.
There are throngs who will gather and protest next week, and the great majority never attended a political rally before 2009. Now how can that be? What might they see and feel from within that others dismiss because of donkeys and elephants and cicles and hammers and who knows what else. My country and its founding Constitution is being undermined, and only the light of exposure will stop this.
There are 2 men in this world who know more about history, physics, ploitics and culture than any others I have read over the last 30 years…Martin Armstrong and Lyndon LaRouche. How ironic that both ended up imprisoned on trumped up charges because simply they knew too much and could not be corrupted by arms of government. Armstrong has clearly defined the Eco. Confidence Cycle [public distrust of govt] pointed down initially into May-June of 2011 [$1700-2750 gold], on to Sept 2016 at $3500-5000 gold, then a final confidence plunge into Jan. 2020.
Others like Chris Story, with a large intelligence network, are close to the chaotic greed that propells all this nonsense, but the details are sensational to the point of almost being non-believable and certainly difficult to grasp. I am but a passenger on this planet…a free thinker willing to share. And Mrsoul, you and I are not so different in that we both CARE. That is more than ample common ground……peace, pic.
These jerks are broke,they see you have a three million dollar gold collection and they think that the courts will give it to them.
Kanaka creek is not navigable buy the States own definition so it should be dismissed right off the bat.It just makes me sick to see are State sink this low,how do they expect the Great State of California to ever recover if they keep going after the people who produce wealth and employment.Sooner or later their will not be any money left for them to steal and they will be on food stamps like everyone else.Problem with that is most of these people are little more then animals and when animals get cornered they attack anything close enough to bite.Just like the last case it will get thrown out,do not counter sue.
Just one more year and we the people are going to vote some of these people out of office and they know it.
If this is all they come up with Mike they have nothing and when it’s over and gold is $1,200 a ounce the mine will have to turn away investors.I guess I must be one of the nasty doers as well, for I am not easily intimidated by folks with an evil agenda.
I see this whole conspiracy as a form of taxation without representation to steal our valuable assets by financially choking us while big brother keeps printing more and more money which, soon enough, will start up the fires of inflation once again while they and all their paid cohorts continue to wage war on gold.
Why in the heck is the Water Board calling us a shell company? Sounds to me like they are drawing at straws. We are a gold exploration company, according to the SEC. Is this obstreperous organization now representing the SEC or just for their own selfish interests based upon orders from their keepers?
I suggest we contact GATA and ask for assistance. Maybe, Mike needs to contact Fox News and see if he can get an audience with them for, obviously, a noteworthy news story.
Or better yet, contact the Chinese Embassy and let these guys know we are open for the business in seeking venture partners. They would love to get rid of some of their unwanted dollars for a possible equity interest. That
works for me.A good idea would be setting up a special day in paying honor and respect the efforts of all the Chinese workers that helped develop our famous goldfields.
Another thought: I don’t have time to properly quote a specific person from Russia who predicted that the US will eventually break-up into separate countries but if this does happen, where will the gold come from to establish the backing of a new currency??
Will it come from the streams? Will it come from reactivated mining operations? You tell me, where will it come from?
Is this their plan, slowly transfer ownership to the State of past producing properties by squeezing them now on environmental issues?Just look what the big bankers did, did they create a crisis just to pick some fruit for themselves via the takeover of the Bear Stearns’ and Lehman’s customers when King Paulson closed them down? Who benefitted? Who will eventually benefit from shutting down the gas powered sluices in the rivers and by forcing current owners of past gold producers to shutter over more attacks based on just pure fantasy?
Sorry about misspelling your Name
Hello Micheal,
I recommend, council from the Pacific Legal Foundation, and net working with Mining associations. To defend your position.
I believe your rights should be grand fathered into your mine as these subsequent environmental laws are alleged to be involved were made post establishment of your mine.For six years this topic, Two-headed Front waited for another entry. It was never merged into the Miscellaneous Topic, another topics or deleted. It waited because of its powerful entries, written by some people who still participate in the public discussions we share. I don’t know why, but this morning I reread the nine entries by five interested participants (starting at the first entry on 04/11/2002) and thought, “You have something to say today and have wondered where to put it. Why not this Two-headed Front topic that has warranted its place to remain as one of the limited topics?”
Two-headed Front: right or wrong; fair or unjust; legal or illegal; responsible behavior or irresponsible behavior; we verses they; us verses them; fight or flight. Maybe the other four writers or others will voice their comments to the concept of a Two-headed Front.
Here’s the latest about real gold mining in California. On behalf of the People of the State of California, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region (CRWQCB) notified the California Attorney General (CAG) that it wanted to file a very comprehensive lawsuit against our mining company for about $3 million dollars in alleged damages, civil penalties and injunctive and other equitable relief. Just for the sport of it the CAG tossed in my name as a co-defendant. The case, NO 7019 was filed in Superior Court in Downieville on May 01, 2009, and served in July. We answered the complaint on August 20, 2009 and denied culpability. There are five causes of action.
Does this sound familiar? One can suggest a pattern. When the California District Attorney Association, lied to the Sierra County Grand Jury to get an indictment for murder against the Company, its mine manager and its president all interest in significant investments to development our property ceased. How will significant investors in advancing California’s greatest high-grade gold district view this specious claim for $3 million react to this news? Anyone care to guess? What timing!
Why were so many requests by the Company to issue a permit that fits the specifics of the mine operation ignored? Why did the CRWQCB ignore a hearing to air out the obvious difference in interpreting the regulation by its staff and the professional miners? Why did CAG take on and write such a specious lawsuit? Could all those people who have been telling me over the past decade that there are people who want this mine to close be correct?
If you are not outraged by past events that have happened to this small mine and Company, you may want to take an interest today. The CAG wants to ignore the corporate security laws that have served America well for a long time. If a corporate president is personally responsible for being responsible and protecting its shareholders (owners) against unwarranted attacks, all 350 million American citizens should know that this is the new direction of America. Plenty of laws exist to hammer foul play by corporate officers and directors (which I certainly support). The Sixteen to One has no guilt in this case (nor do I) and it would not take much of a due diligence review by CAG to agree.
The CRWQCB told the CAG that unidentified additional defendants are also pretty nasty. It alleges that Original Sixteen to One Mine, Inc is a “mere shell” and that other nasty does are using “the corporate entity merely as a shield against liability.” Wow, the CAG must believe it also. It has a fiduciary responsibility to the people of this state and to the legal requirements set forth in California’s codes and the California State Bar Association. Our corporation is almost 100 years old and has survived to become the oldest American public corporation operating in America. It did not accomplish this through illegal activities. (I wonder if CDAA wants to come back to Sierra County, lie to the grand jury and seek criminal charges again.)
One issue is monitoring the water or the lack thereof. I’m not going into details. CRWQCB wanted 1,440 annual tests at a cost of over $25,000. The mine tested the water for twenty years and the results are very predictable, depending of the season and weather. It requested a review by staff to lower the requirements. Yes, by necessity many of the tests were not complete. BUT, where was the environmental harm?
Well, CRWQCB told our elected Attorney General and his staff of lawyers that a serious public nuisance has occurred because the mine limited testing the water and discharged waste and pollutants into the “navigable” Kanaka Creek. How many readers are familiar with Kanaka Creek, a designated intermittent creek that goes underground in many places plus has a water diversion dam downstream from the mine. Also the stated discharge is naturally occurring elements that pre-exist the present waterways by 130 million years or so. Does the CAG have accountability to the court? To the people? To the mine? I hope so and that all of them will be held accountable for the assertions made in this lawsuit.
What does CRWQCB want? It wants money. Upon research it appears that this agency is funded from fees it charges and penalties it collects. All of this is conducted “in the best interest of the public”, you and me and those hard working blue collar miners who so desperately want to go back to work, earn a living and buy some new shoes for the kids and a pizza for the night. Anyone interested?
Klaus Kolb has professionally (means integrity and more) committed to help again. He knows the mine does not have the funds to wage an environmental fight against the stupidity of these allegations and the willful misappropriation of the intent of the legislature, who passed laws regarding water quality in California. Hey, let’s kill off all the productive workers. Let’s lean into the producers of materials useful to society. Let’s put them all out of business by enacting impossible conditions to operate and then sending them a bill for service. Let’s do it because we care so much and have such a superior grasp of nature than the farmers, loggers, miners or other providers of physical goods living in and working in rural California.
Let it be known that rural America is under attack again by white collar folks sitting in air conditioned offices in Sacramento or San Francisco, maybe even as far away as Washington D.C. Take a position. Help stop another nail into the greatnesses of America. Make freedom ring. Do it for yourself. Do it for future generations. Do it for a great gold mine in California. Do it for the miners and their families. Do it for me or do it for George.
For those of you at the meeting who heard Mike allude to the battles he’s fought on behalf of the mine and it’s shareholders (us), I want to re-iterate a point he glossed over:
Mike is not a lawyer, yet his convictions to the cause led him into new ground, right there where another lawyer might have sidetracked the issue with litigation. Mike used a technique that doesn’t come with a law degree, instead with a moral conscience. Tell the truth and an honest Judge will rule accordingly. That’s what happened. Mark’s unfortunate accident shouldn’t have been the catalyst.
There is nothing bigger than putting one’s friend’s accidental death into proper perspective. Yet the need to do so exists, and Mike’s point of perspective did just that. He dignified Mark’s death by fighting on his behalf, and the spirit of personal responsibility that is so crucial to success.
Now it’s our turn. Let’s all again recognize the real issue here and as the gentleman who raised the toast to Mike’s perseverence (for those of you not there, it was a dry toast, no distilled spirits needed), toast to mining and self-determination, which continues to takes a back-seat on the old Two-Headed Front (previous Forum discussion, check it out) once again: how to go mining and keep the politics at bay.
So thanks, Mike, for the fight. And thanks Johnathon for all your hard work.
Here’s to the next pocket.
The annual report will be mailed to shareholders this Wednesday. By the weekend I will offer some comments in the Forum and bring our web readers up to date. For those who write and those who read the forum, your participation is inspiring. As we move through the minefields of operating a gold mine in the United States, shared truth is a weapon of preservation. During private moments of deep thought, I shake my head in wonderment as to why a six thousand-year-old industry and a hundred-year-old specific company still must deal with preservation. Collectively we have more than persevered lately. We have won the battles. The business of mining gold is before us now. There are other issues. For example. On June 10 an administrative hearing is scheduled in Nevada City with MSHA. The evidence and truth clearly say that Mark died in a tragic accident. It will be entertaining to watch federal lawyers try to twist an accident into a crime. It will be interesting to see a federal administrative lawyer (judge) objectively practicing the law. It will be important for Americans to learn if their tax dollars are going to support perjurers.
Yeah!!
Okay, now we do it.
Goldmaster, Bluejay, Goldfx and everyone else, let’s get busy, call some people up on the phone, tell them to come look at the web-site so that when they come to Shareholder’s Day they’ll go back home and write stuff here…How about Open House Day, so that just because they’re not yet a sheareholder they feel the bug, get involved…Now I’ll relate two stories, both of which are most likely similar as to how we all got bitten by the bug, so that we all send the bug out to bite someone else:
Many years ago I was listening to the radio (AM 1530) on a Sunday morning sometime between 5 AM and 7 AM…Bob Simms hosting what then was called the Outdoor Show, focusing then on things outdoors. (It’s now dedicated to fishing, mostly, and I still listen faithfully.) The guest was a guy named Michael Miller from a gold mine called the Original Sixteen to One who wasn’t dropping the dream, said he was dedicated to not only the historical significance of the Original Sixteen to One Mine but just as much to tapping the riches down inside.
Wow. I’d been panning for flakes, and this got my attention, big time. Flakes were good (size doesn’t matter when passion’s the issue), but this was something that made my blood run.
Cutting to the chase: I bought shares and went up there, met some incredible people who exhibited incredible passion for freedom and (here I go…), Constitutionally defined freedom to chase whatever’s there. I remember walking down to the mill-site looking around at all that white rock, completely baffled as to why some people would consider these piles “ruining the Earth.”
It was the Earth, nice and white, and maybe full of gold, all over the place, on top of the ground. No way was some human any more powerful than the Big Guy or Gal (God) ruining the Earth. It was beautiful. So was the tour……
Second story:
Back in high-school (1968-1972) I lived in West Covina, LA area, and to make a few bucks for when I finally went to college at UC Davis, I took a job with a steel foundry, owned at that time by my best friend’s family, in …get this…Colton, East LA. I spent the days with my hands and fingers within milli-inches of a five-foot tall diamond grinder wheel, shaving off extraneous steel casting blobs that wouldn’t make the grade, all these huge buckets of molten steel dumping around me. I remember the smell…. Most of the guys around me were missing fingers. (Thankfully by the time I left for school I still had all ten fingers, since I’ve gone on to make music performance a large part of my life.) Today you don’t go into Colton, unless you want to get shot; or unless you want to get shot on film. Yup, the steel foundry’s still there, but not the production of steel products. Now they shoot movies there. Yes, the mine is an incredible set for movies (I think Mike’s been courting film producers already), but when movies are made at the Original Sixteen to One, let’s insure it’s because active mining is happening!
Two stories told, but not to sound off my own horn. Instead, telling you all this is an example of what we need to do to get the ball rolling.
Now. Yesterday. Tomorrow.
We’re all extremely passionate people. I know this, even though I haven’t even met you yet (I think.) And since passion is power, I have a good feeling about this. I don’t normally open up personal angles, but, this is a time to do exactly that: spread the word, tell stories that brought us to this passion.
Here’s the nut: Many times in gold-mining history, stories of new rushes and new discoveries have made many chase after false dreams. But this mine of ours is the Real Deal.
A lesson can be learned through the close observation of one of Mother Natures’s little creatures. How does a spider exist? It sets up a little working den and spins its web. The success of the food gathering and life sustaining process is determined from where the prospecting is done. How many spiders routinely die and shrivel up inside an inclosed structure as compared to those that thrive well in the natural environment?
What has to be done is, the capturing of one’s energy or a groups’s energy for personal satisfaction along with the chance that it could be mutually benefitting as well to the Company.
How do we do this? As starters, a few ideas will be mentioned but the real resource is within the shareholders and all their combined life experiences. What organizations do your belong to or know of? Plan a day or two in Alleghany for a special annual gathering, meeting or adventure. Set up tents or bring your motor homes if it will be an over-nighter.
Take pictures of all of our properties and submit them to the motion picture producing companies for exterior and interior shooting possibilities. The companies will catalog them under subject matter. The companies pay handsomely for property use. If a picture is done here sell the people that come the idea of gold ownership. Let them closely inspect the Company that mines it and sell them gold products. Let the Company entertain their interests when they are not working.
Invite video and motion picture departments of universities as well to come and use the area for shooting.
Locate and invite bicycle, hiking, camera, bird watching and other clubs to come and use parts of the property and sell them too.
Alleghany is a remote little mining town frequented by an extremely small amount of people. If we don’t spin some kind of sticky web, how can we expect people to have an interest in the Company?
I know what you mean, Rick. Checking out the “Forum” is like driving around the block to see if one of the neighbors has a new car in the diveway. If you need a little heat and passion, how about that rising gold price! Now, as for getting the “Sixteen” noticed (and I assume you mean by investors), Networking the shareholders might be fruitful. In other words, if you’re a shareholder, go to the annual shareholders meeting and get those feelings back as to why you invested in the mine. Holding the “Whopper” or any other specimen should do it! Then, the next time your asked, “What did you do over the weekend”? You can pull out some pictures of you holding a big chunk of gold or maybe headed underground and tell them about California’s oldest operating hard-rock gold mine up in Alleghany, and how you’re one of the shareholders and… “Say, you got a few bucks you want to invest”? “We’re thinking about sinking a new shaft over on the Red Star property”. All it takes is a new story being told to someones rich uncle. But, if that doesn’t raise some working capital, at least you had a fun weekend. Hopefully, someone will be putting the shareholders meeting info on the homepage as promised.
Goldmaster, you obviously have the dream in your blood, no previous offense intended. Unfortunately there’s been a stream of public sector regulation with no other intent than making political points directed to the uninformed masses who actually believe the word “MINE” equates with the destruction of the environment. (I have so many first hand stories to this effect, you wouldn’t believe the ignorance that is best balanced with logic, but still isn’t digested with reason. But, I digress.) Should I address their concerns (how drilling a core sample would hurt a mosquito,) sure enough, someone would file a lawsuit or appoint an administrative sap to prove how mosquitoes are ill-effected by core-drilling, how mosquitoes might become locally extinct in Allegany (note the word ‘locally’ in the extinct reference . . . a contradiction in species evolutionary theory which I hope to relate here soon); next we’re out of the core-drilling business.
True.
Goldmaster, you’ll understand the obstructioninst issue best after a thorough review of the issues thwarting progress brought to light on this very Forum page. It serves well to scan all the Topics, all the way to the bottom of the Topic, which will glean previous perspectives lost in the way the Forum is currently set up.
It’s there to read about.
Lately itseems like everyone wants to become part of the party. That’s a good clue.
That being: what MM and the OAu has done to survive the latest onslaught from the CDAA, the CRWQCD, and whoever else; just look at the advice now getting thrown into the mix ( after a decision has finally shed some light on the accusation of Mark F.’s tragic accident.)
It would be a genuine shame if an actual interested party with investment on the brain (good idea) were to become distracted all due to my comments here, since such concerns are intended for positive outcome rather than administrative posturing.
Not me. Just like all of us.
Goldmaster, it just seemed to me that positioning was your angle. So, if I’m off my rocker, I apologize. (Damn, this PC apology stuff really isn’t me. My guess is also it doesn’t define the OAu Miner.)
But all you interested parties out there watching this scuffle, don’t go away, please. While it’s still about money, it’s still about doing it right. . . .When stuff stinks, you fight back to make it right.
The flagrant and downright deceitful performance of exercising administrative law. Four players represented our government. Three sat at a table facing the fourth, who was the judge. The lawyer’s name was Isabelle something. The inspector was James L. Weisbeck. I remember his name because MMM repeated it throughout the hearing. There was one event that evoked spontaneous and healthy laughter from ten of the eleven people in the room. The US attorney kept objecting to the questions MMM posed to the inspector. She also continued to object to the questions MMM asked the miners and geologists who took the oath to testify. MMM usually objected to the objection. The judge almost always sustained the government’s objection. The judge was also a little slow to respond which was either his natural state of mind or he was old or he was unfamiliar with mines and mining. He may have been a whiz at other mines, but he exhibited little understanding of this hardrock underground gold mine. This is what MMM continually and relentlessly brought into the record. The funny event was…MMM asked a question. The lawyer objected. MMM sustained her objection to his own question. The judge just sat there and seemed confused. The lawyer said you cannot sustain my objection after everyone calmed down. Knowingly or unknowingly MMM proved his point.
Five citations were contested. Each one abused the purpose of the law and MSHA requirements that places the responsibility of safety. Weisbeck graduated from inspector school in March. Five months later he goes to the Sixteen To One mine. It is his first underground inspection. In less than one hour he issues a citation for inadequate warning of a chute overhead in the tunnel. In the next hour he goes to a spot where he writes a citation for inadequate support and reckless disregard by the miner to check for dangerous ground that could hurt a miner. He then found an empty acetylene container against a wall in the shop, which in his judgement could fall over and hurt a miner. The last one seemed so ridiculous but a plate over a restart button lost one of its screws. It was in the janitor supply room. He issued a citation on the merits that someone could get electrocuted. All five of these allegations lacked credible evidence to support them. They should be dismissed, but I doubt will be.
In addition to harassment beyond the limits of law my government breached its fiduciary requirement to me. I have been damaged. Why? The Sixteen to One miners face extinction and they represent the last of the deep hard rock guys. It is my culture as a Californian and as an American. The culture would be gone. We would only see it in a museum. This is why I asked the question. Could someone do a better job at keeping the gold miners working to find gold? I saw the elephant. MMM and his miners have a great hand. It appears to be as hard to dig it out of them as it is to find the high-grade gold. So, my culture can be found in an area known as the Northern Mines. It is a culture that goes back to recorded times, but Richard Henry Dana, who wrote “Two Years Before the Mast” (mid 1830’s) ignites the Pacific coast culture. Nobody was checking the Sierra Nevada mountains for wealth as Dana cruised the coast picking up cow hides. Since he was born a Massachusettian and sailed from Boston, my culture incorporates the Atlantic coast.
It was the gold miners who rushed to and developed California into an American state who laid down the roots of the West. The state began providing its gold to the world in 1848. The Northern Mines gold continued to ignite the Pacific Coast culture. It must continue. I saw the character similarities of those miners in the administration hearing to the gold miners 150 years ago. Our tax dollars were authorized to help American miners. Safe mining was recognized as important to the people in 1977, when the feds got involved. Its only purpose was to protect miners. The most impressive piece of evidence on record is a statement of the miners. The govt. lawyer objected and objected each time it was offered as evidence. MMM read it into the record when Weisbeck was testifying. He kept trying with his miners and each time he later addressed the previous objection. Finally he entered it himself. The judge had to overrule the last try of the fed lawyer to keep it out of evidence and now it becomes a legal oath or manifesto of the Sixteen to One. It is a cultural document which I want to see in print. If available I will buy the transcript, if I get the opportunity.
Our society has drifted far from American mores, culture, law, heritage and common sense. Thomas Payne, where are you now that your country needs you again?
So important is it to review the response by gfxgold in the topic about Future below, I decided to expand with a new topic rather than upstaging it by responding in that title.
As many of you are probably aware, I frequently add my perspectives to the Forum both in responses and in new thought, but I feel a need to clarify that I have never worked as an employee of the mine although it may sound that way at times. However, I have looked closely at the obstacles that confront success, occasionally as on Shareholder’s Days underground, but mostly above ground. Clearly these are obstacles defining two entirely different headings: below ground so well explained in gfxgold’s comments, above ground so poorly understood by shortsighted questions defining “success and failures” in the face of political obstacles thrown at the Original Sixteen to One Mine for political gain.
This is a Two-Headed Front. The mine is fortunate to have the competence of Jonathan Farrell as mine manager who makes the underground decisions that formulate success, ultimately the person responsible for the discovery and recovery of gold. The mine is also fortunate to have Michael Miller to formulate success against a never ending political battle being waged against United States Constitutional rights, waged against unchecked political appointments bent on taking advantage of Alleghany’s high profile, waged against the very institution that formulated this great State of California, eventually and indirectly waged against the stock values.
I implore anyone interested to review the other topics on the Forum page that are discussed along these lines (specifically those in response to the arsenic issues), as one would see the depth of the political challenges. With these perspectives in mind, there is no doubt in my mind that there has been no “failure” by the actions of the C.E.O. of the Original Sixteen to One, rather success instead.
“Salted success” is another form of “failure” and we must differentiate the difference between that and honesty defined by truth.
Alleghany may be the home for “High-Grade” gold mines in California and the “Sixteen to One” is the most famous. However, the nature of the high-grade deposit is a game of inches. Should you drill one more round because all indications are that the next high-grade deposit is only inches away? Or, should you cut your losses and go in a different direction? Or should you go in three, four, or six different directions? Using information from geologists, history of past discoveries, the latest electronic technology, a lot of hard work from some of the best miners, a little luck and your best guess and you can still come up empty handed. It’s been said that any successful CEO needs to make good decisions fifty one percent of the time. A CEO will have friends and detractors, but few equals. Mike Miller is someone who has thrown himself into his work. He is constantly thinking of ways to benefit the mine. He knows that there are families counting on a paycheck, even if he must not pay himself. Sometimes, he must take a hard stand or unpopular stand to defend the welfare of the mine, it’s employees, and it’s stockholders. He has done this for about fifteen years since OAU was created. How many ounces of gold does there need to be in the next high-grade deposit to make everything OK? Fifty? Five thousand? Fifty Thousand? Or, just enough to get a “feel good” story about the “Sixteen to One” back on the “Six o’clock News”!
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