American Mining Rights Association

MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Gold miners oppose land grab in Nevada

The American Mining Rights Association is calling on all Nevadans to oppose draft legislation known as the Pershing County lands bill that could affect up to two million acres of public lands and shut down more 160,000 acres to future mining in the state.

AMRA President Shannon Poe has urged not only miners but hikers, bikers, anglers, hunters, campers and all outdoor-user groups to oppose this proposed land grab and possible sale of public lands to private interests.

“This land grab is just another scheme to take public lands away from the people and sell them off to private developers. It’s atrocious and simply wrong,” Poe said. “These public lands are owned by the people and held in trust for the people of the United States by the federal government—the same government that is colluding with environmental lobby groups to restrict access and sell off the people’s land without their consent. It’s a bad deal for miners and outdoors enthusiasts. It would hurt tourism, the economy and ultimately the American taxpayer.”

Details of the proposal are murky, but seem to stem from Nevada senators—Democrat Sen. Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart Sen. Dean Heller, Poe said. The draft legislation has been published on Heller’s website: http://www.heller.senate....ng-county-lands-bill

Larry Robbins, a gold prospector and small-scale miner, said his ability to mine on at least two mining claims will be in jeopardy under the plan.

“We do not want our public lands sold off. We don’t want new Wilderness Areas created at the expense of our congressionally granted right to prospect and mine for gold and other precious metals. It’s an arbitrary taking of public lands. It’s upsetting,” said Robbins, a member of the Gold Prospectors Association of America and president of the Northern Nevada GPAA Chapter. “Our group just filed two new claims which we later discovered are in an area that would be off-limits to mining under this plan.”

Robbins was one of more than 50 people, including miners and ranchers concerned about mining rights and grazing, who showed up at a March 16 meeting of the Pershing County Board of Commissioners in Lovelock, Nev. to get some answers about the Pershing County Economic Development and Conservation Act Discussion Draft. Staff for both senators also “attended” the meeting via phone conference, Robbins said.

“What deeply concerns me is the public has not been informed of this draft legislation, and yet it would affect a large portion of public lands in Nevada and beyond. Our research pegs the public lands that would be affected at two million acres,” Robbins said. “And, this is on top of the sage grouse saga that is threatening to close more than 10 million acres across five western U.S. states to new mining claims.”

The proposed public lands bill would :

• Release 120,000 acres of Wilderness Study Area;

• Designate 160,000 acres of new Wilderness Areas (not all in Pershing County);

• Sell off an unknown fraction of nearly two million acres of “checkerboard lands” and;

• Provide for land conveyances (sale of specified lands) including to mining companies.

“While this draft bill would remove a 120,000 acres of Wilderness Study Area, it creates a larger 160,000-acre Wilderness Area in a different location,” Robbins said. “How can this happen without the proper studies being done and without public input?”

- 30 -

American Mining Rights Association is a national non-profit organization based in California.

For more information, please contact:

AMRA President Shannon Poe

Phone: (209) 878-3910 (office)

Email: shannonp@americanminingrights.com

Website: www.americanminingrights.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/americanminingrights

American Mining Rights Association

PMB #607, 6386 Greeley Hill Rd.

Coulterville, CA 95311