Jason Inks and I just finished placing our special, new 30-minute New 49'er video up on our web site. It can  now be viewed (left click) or downloaded (right click) by visiting the following page:

New 49'er Member Video

This video goes a very long way to present an exciting presentation of how our program works, what the area around Happy Camp looks like and how our members feel about The New 49'ers. Haze Williams (videographer and New 49'er member) and I devoted many, many hours to pull it all together during this past mining season.

There is really nothing else even remotely like this video within our industry. This is the DVD which you will most likely want to show others when they are wondering why you are passionate about gold prospecting!

If you would prefer to have a free DVD copy of the high-resolution version of this new video, please  contact the girls in our office.

Our Legal Fund Continues to Need Serious Help!

In our previous two newsletters, I explained the reasons why our legal fund had fallen $17,748.02 behind in being able to pay the specialists who helped us defeat Assembly Bill 1032 (AB 1032), and also to overcome several important legal challenges facing our industry during this past season. I have been appealing to our members and supporters for financial contributions so we can catch up on past expenses and begin building a fund to prepare ourselves for the new challenges which our industry is already facing.

Last month, I reported that our legal fund remained $14,526.61 behind. As I write this update, our legal fund is presently $7084.05 behind in past obligations.

I want to give my sincerest thank you to those of you who have been responding to my calls for financial contributions to help with political and legal defense! Please don't stop yet! If we can get one more good month of contributions from you, we will feel comfortable in contracting our Sacramento lobbyists for 2008!

As I have explained in the past two newsletters, because we have not been raising enough money to keep up with our past legal defense bills, we were forced to lay off the lobby firm which has been assisting us in Sacramento. This is very unfortunate, because there are important programs winding their way through the California government machine right now that will have an important impact upon our industry:

1) There still remains no funding in place to support the environmental review of existing suction dredge regulations which was ordered by the court earlier this year. If the Department of Fish & Game's process stalls for lack of funding, there is a real possibility that our regulations could be suspended. At present, I am not aware of any serious effort being made to secure the necessary funding to complete this process. Our lobbyist was preparing to do that through friendly senators and assembly members in the California assembly. That is now on hold.

2) California Water Quality Control's Statewide Exemption (an additional permit requirement for suction dredgers that few people even know about) expired several years ago, and that agency has begun a formal process to determine what to do about it. The process presently involves receiving input from all of our adversaries (and their professional lobbyists), who, of course, are being very vocal that there should not be any Exemption to the water quality permit requirement for suction dredgers or other small-scale miners (high-bankers) . The annual permit for this agency would normally cost around $1,200 for every individual placer miner if the Statewide Exemption is not renewed.

3) There is a very strong chance that AB 1032, or something similar to it, will be reintroduced to the California legislature in early 2008.
 

4) We have now overcome the very serious political and legal attacks made upon our industry by our liberal adversaries three years in a row. It would be wishful thinking to believe they are not planning something else for this year. Whatever they will bring at us (I can nearly guarantee it will be some combination of 1, 2 & 3 above) will almost assuredly require our need for specialists (lobbyists, attorney, etc) if we expect our voices to be heard; if we expect to have the most chance of winning on today's battlefield!

I am caught between a rock and a hard spot, here: We were not able to pay our specialists at the rate that contributions were coming in during 2007. And we cannot successfully defend our industry in today's world without them! Please understand this: Without the help from our lobbyists and attorney, there is no way our industry would have defeated AB 1032 last year! If we had not defended (and won) key litigation during the last 3 years, right now, (1) there would no longer be mining within the high water marks along U.S. Forest Service land anywhere in America; (2) there would no longer be any suction dredging in California; and (3) gold panning would be a criminal offense in California. Our attorney and lobbyists really worked hard for us. I hope you agree that we must finish paying them with minimal delay, and then start building up our defenses for the next challenges which are surely coming our way.

Summary from our Lobbyist

Important Litigation

Thank you from Shasta Miners Association

Please help me put our lobbyists back on our team! We need them working our side for us!

Please listen: This is the pivotal point of how future prospecting will go on the public lands of America. It is not only about The New 49'ers. We are just doing our part to fight the important battles, the outcomes which will affect prospectors across America.

If most people reading this just sent $10 each, we would have all the money we need to meet our well-funded adversaries on the battlefield!

Here is the strategy that has been working for us during the past 5 years: When we are faced with an important legal or political challenge, we hire the best attorneys and/or lobbyists and/or environmental specialists that we can find to help us win. Such professionals are expensive, because they are very good at what they do. Our attorneys are better than the government attorneys that we go up against. Our lobbyists are plugged into the political machine well enough to prevent our messages from being ignored. They know how to utilize our resources to achieve the desired result! The biology is on our side. But it takes respected specialists to get our message heard.

So the challenge for us is in defending our industry at the present time is primarily in raising the money to pay specialists that will help us to win our battles. I ask that you please don't turn your back on this reality. Small contributions from a lot of people are the key! Otherwise, the pain is vastly increased upon a smaller group of us who are willing to take some responsibility for how things come out. Please listen: The pain was so great a few months ago that we were forced to lay off one of the industry's few key warriors!

One more month of encouragement from you, and we will place our lobbyists back on the job!! Can you please help?

Contributions can be directed to New 49'er Legal Fund, P.O. Box 47, Happy Camp, CA 96039. You can also call in a debit or credit card contribution to our office at (530) 493-2012. Or you can make a contribution through Pay Pal.

To help encourage financial contributions, some very nice prizes have been donated by industry manufacturers and other supporters. While we are not selling raffle tickets, we have been authorized by the prize donors to submit a drawing ticket for each $10 in contributions that we receive from those of you who support our effort ($100 would create 10 tickets, etc.). Our girls in the office will print your tickets as we receive contributions. The prize drawing will take place on 31 January, 2008.

This (hopefully) is our last big push to catch up on our legal bills from last year. Thank you very much for anything you can do to help us out!

Electronic Newsletters

The electronic version of this newsletter is the best way to go if you are connected to the Internet. This is because we are able to do the electronic newsletter in full color and moving video when we cover the ongoing adventures that are being experienced by our members.

For example, in next month's newsletter, we will present a video-enhanced true adventure that was recently experienced by some of our members along K-14. The presentation will reveal how we focus the weekend Group Mining Projects upon showing participants exactly how successful sampling is accomplished along our mining properties. Then, we organize a team effort to discover and develop brand new high-grade gold deposits. Here are some previews of next month's newsletter:

Preliminary Sampling

Final cleanup

To gain access to our monthly electronic newsletters, just fill out the "New 49'er Newsletter" form that is present on every page of our web site (www.goldgold.com).

2008 Planning

Because of the record-high gold prices, our week-long Group Mining Projects are quickly filling up. We limit the number of people who participate in these special events, so if you are interested, I encourage you to make contact with our office and put yourself on the list:

Schedule of 2008 Events

Orange County Fairgrounds, Orange County, CA - January 12 & 13, 2008

Phoenix, AZ Fairgrounds - February 9 & 10

Fresno, CA Fairgrounds - February 16 & 17

Monroe, WA Fairgrounds - February 23 & 24

Salem, Oregon - March 29 & 30

Primm, NV - April 12 & 13

Webmaster Specials

Here is a reminder that our web master, Jason, is running Special Offers on some of the best gold recovery products presently available within our industry. With gold prices shooting up as they are, I suggest you make your purchases while supplies last!

Back

Contact us!

General Information About the Club :: Learning Through Experience
Camping & Lodging :: Mining Properties :: Events & Schedule
About the Area :: What's New :: Products :: More About Gold
Learning How to Find Gold :: Gold Mining Adventures
Message Forums :: Site Index :: Legal Affairs :: Join :: Contact
Gold Mining Sampling and Consulting Services
California Gold Claims For Sale
Links

Join Now

Copyright © 1997-2008, The New 49ers, all rights reserved.
We appreciate your comments. Send to