Here is a link to a topic I have touched on in the past: purchase of mining claims, not to mine, but to enjoy the land for pure pleasure.  Seems Ouray County, Colorado, a beautiful part of the world, is plagued by this problem.  The article is long, the issues complex, the demands of the “miners” loud, and the opportunities to get in on a low cost, second home in the mountains, courtesy of the 1872 Mining Law, potentially limited.  But read the link yourself and maybe buy yourself that perfect peice of Colorado heaven, thanks to the mining industry.  

The lucky ones attended all the conferences in this series, and now they will get a chance to go to Vail in fall 2008.  At least objectively it seems as though they were the lucky ones.  At least objectively the thought of a conference in Vail in the fall should inspire the lucky. 

My position is subjective and  ambivalent.  My memory is worse.  I vaguely recall attending one conference in the series in Fort Collins and hating it: it was cold; the buildings were academic; and I believed I knew more than the talkers—how many presentations on slope stability can anybody sit through?

Many years later, I was engaged by a lawyer to help fight off a multi-million dollar class action  suite related to control (or absence thereof) of tailings.  I referred to every single set of proceedings of the many conferences in the series.  I quoted and referenced the papers, and we won the case. 

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The awesome power of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asserts itself once again.  In Mineweb we read that ARCO has agreed to a consent decree that involves paying $187 million to finance cleanup of mining-caused impacts along the Clark Fork River in southwestern Montana.  Here are a few thoughts on this huge cost and the lessons it may hold for the mining industry in general. 

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