Bureau Of Land Management In Another Armed Stand Off Over Oregon Gold Mine…

Control the land, control the people.

Via IJR

An Oregon gold mine has become the subject of a heated dispute involving the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), after mine owners called in the Oath Keepers of Oregon for extra security:

 

According to Fox News:

 

“More than 100 demonstrators, some of them armed, reportedly surrounded the Bureau of Land Management’s Medford, Oregon district office Thursday to protest the agency’s regulations against a rural gold mine.”[…]

 

Sugar Pine Mine owners George Backes and Rick Barclay claim they have exclusive surface rights to the mine, which have been grandfathered in for over 100 years, and need not follow federal regulations.

 

But Reuters reports that Jim Whittington, spokesman for the Oregon BLM, said that while the owners have mining rights, the surface rights to the mine were given to the BLM in 1961. As such, the miners must comply with federal regulations.

 

Because of this, BLM issued stop-work orders against the mine in March. Whittington said that the order simply requires the mine owners to obtain proper permits and follow certain guidelines. The miners are already planning to appeal the decision. More