Board of Supervisors Rejects Mine in Final Vote

At the Final Hearing for the Idaho-Maryland Mine on February 15 & 16, 2024, Nevada County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously 5-0 to deny the certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and deny the Rise Gold project, fully rejecting Rise Gold’s plan to re-open the Idaho-Maryland Mine!

You can thank our Supervisors by sending an email to bdofsupervisors@nevadacountyca.gov.

This is a huge victory, but it's important to know that it's not over yet. Rise Gold has sued the County. They still claim they have a vested right to mine, and that the County has violated their due process rights in the processing of the application. CEA Foundation attorneys, Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger, analyzed their vested rights claims and assert they "will be dead on arrival in court."

An Exhausting But Rewarding Marathon

American Activist Dorothy Height, once said “Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.”

And grow we did. Opposition to the mine has brought this community together like perhaps no other issue. Over the last almost 4 years, thousands of residents, hundreds of businesses, and dozens of activist groups have come together to voice their opposition to the mine. In the meantime, County planners and executive staff spent exhaustive hours working to process the application thoroughly and fairly.

Together – this community provided an example of how to participate in the process with a respectful presence and well researched analysis of the issues. Fortunately, our efforts were well rewarded. Our County’s planning department and commissioners reviewed the risks and stood up for the people. Our Supervisors and their executive staff created an outcome that will protect our air, water, and quality of life in the future.

There really are thousands of people to thank for this outcome. Civil servants, researchers, writers, speakers, demonstrators, educators, organizers, project managers, typists, filmmakers, minstrels, and more. It took ALL of us to get to where we are today. You know who you are. Please pat yourself on the back. This was an incredible community effort!