Filled up to here in California

A bill recently signed into law by Governor Gray Davis, and policies put into place by state regulators at the governor’s instance, probably have marked California as another jurisdiction hostile to mining.

Amendments to the state’s Surface Mining and Reclamation Act, and new approval rules put into place under the act’s authority, will compel all new open-pit metal mines in the state to restore original land contours as part of rehabilitation.

Never mind that restoring original topography might be technically impossible — the expense of backfilling could easily kill most projects at the feasibility stage.

The legislation is the result of the determination of California Governor Davis and state Senator Byron Sher to block the Imperial gold project in Imperial Cty., proposed by Glamis Gold. Imperial has a tortured regulatory history; former Interior secretary Bruce Babbitt, acting on an opinion from Department of the Interior solicitors, denied the project’s plan of operation three days before moving out of his office in January 2001, a denial that was rescinded by his successor, Gale Norton.

The project is a favourite political football. In 2002, Sen. Sher sponsored a bill to force economically crushing rehabilitation requirements on the project, a bill that (owing to Californian legislative rules) died when another bill on a related matter was vetoed by Gov. Davis. Davis, at the time, expressed his regret that he couldn’t sign Sher’s bill separately, and declared his administration would “pursue all possible legal and administrative remedies that will assist in stopping the development of the mine.”

Sen. Sher’s repeat performance, pushed through the state legislature using extraordinary provisions meant for emergency legislation, was signed into law by Gov. Davis in early April. It forces any metallic-mineral operation within a mile of a native American sacred site to backfill all open pits and post financial security for the work.

The Imperial property contains part of the Trail of Dreams, which historically has been used by the local Quechan Indians for traveling between the Colorado River and the desert interior. Quechan tribal officials say the trail has spiritual significance: Lorey Cachora of the Quechan Cultural Committee says that “at the Running Man site, one could run along the trail and, at the spot of the rock alignment, jump and pass through a ‘window.’ This was a way of passing into another world, I guess you could call it. This would be done, again, through dreaming.’

We realize it is the done thing to take native claims of traditional knowledge at face value; it is an essential mark of respect between people that religious beliefs don’t enter into the discussion. But simply because people believe something does not necessarily make it so. And some of the things Michael Jackson, Sr., the Quechan tribal council’s president, believes, quite likely just aren’t so. He said Norton’s decision on the plan denial was an example of the U.S. government’s “march to destroy us” — effectively an accusation of genocide. We doubt that very much.

There may be a march to destroy something, though. Gov. Davis put that fairly clearly when he said signing Sen. Sher’s bill sent “a clear message to the federal government that this sacred site is more important than gold.”

Gov. Davis and Sen. Sher are ready to play to the mob philosophy that a mining permit is a licence to print money, issued to an environmentally irresponsible industry; and that no modern economy needs mines. The truth is a little more subtle. By making mines uneconomic, Gray and Sher are drawing a line around California, which the industry will simply not cross. Draw all the lines you want, Gov. Davis: there are other opportunities elsewhere, and that noise is the sound of them knocking.