What your AMRA is working on:

Update on what your AMRA is working on:

USFS:
Most of you are aware of the USFS Taser incident and our letter we wrote last week on behalf of our members and others in the public land use community concerning illegal searches. We gave the LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) Commander 7 days to respond to this letter asking why her agents are ignoring the 4th Amendment and their own code of conduct concerning probable cause. That clock expires today and yesterday we received an email from Commander Wears, she wants to speak to us today. We will let you know the outcome and if it does not answer the fundamental questions of why, we will move to step 2…litigation. We have also been working very closely with the Sheriff’s of these counties and honestly and truthfully, some are already to the point they will remove the law enforcement capacity of the USFS from their counties like Sheriff D’Agostino did last year when his county (El Dorado) encountered the same thing.

PARTNERSHIPS AND MMAC (Traditional mining districts):
We have literally been in constant contact with PLP, WMA, GPAA, ICMJ and the New 49’ers on the roll out of the mining districts (MMAC). As you are probably aware, AMRA was not involved in the formation of these traditional mining districts and learned of this plan when all of you did. We have reached out to the gentlemen behind this re-formation of the traditional mining districts and have offered our help, along with those named above. All of these entities are working together hand in hand and frankly, it is quite refreshing to see everyone working together. Ever since the inception of AMRA we have touted the importance of unity and it puts a smile on our face to see all of these extremely talented and important companies working together. MMAC has a conference call tomorrow and will be answering questions about this formation (it is on their website). We are not on this call, but may listen in. Ask them your questions and we encourage you to participate. We are very excited with our partnership with GPAA and look forward to working with them. Thank you GPAA, sincerely.

SCHEDULE:
We have a packed schedule over the next few months. Monday we will be in Reno at a GPAA chapter meeting speaking on mining rights and continuing with our message of unity and calls to action to combat the endless barrage of bills and attacks on small miners everywhere. Tuesday we head to Oregon for a week with the first part of the week in southern Oregon picking up two claims we’ve been eying for over a year. We intend to shoot a new video of our prospecting these new locations as we know you are all requesting new videos. March 28th and 29th we will be in Portland OR at the GPAA gold show. April 11th and 12th we will be in Boise ID at the GPAA gold show and April 25th and 26th we will be in Las Vegas NV at the giant GPAA gold show. Please join us at these shows and support GPAA and the small mining community. They have tons of prizes and the money raised goes into the fight for your rights. Joining GPAA is joining in the fight for public land use and the small miners plight.

MINERS BIBLE AND YOUR RIGHTS:
We are feverishly working on the miners bible and have been for well over a month. The miners bible will be a FREE resource which we will make available to anyone who wants to know their rights. Right of access, Riparian rights, claims rights, what to do if a USFS LEO harasses you, what can and can’t these agents do, what science is there on suction dredging to name just a few of the topics and facts in this publication. As you can see, this is very detailed and will be in a very readable, understandable format. It is big folks, and it is extremely time consuming. We are progressing on this in a systematic and detailed manner. We want to make sure this addresses all of the questions small miners have. We are even going to have mock scenarios in there on how to talk to a Federal agent who confronts someone on their gold claim, what to do if you need access through a gate installed by USFS and so on. This is a beast, but one that is long overdue and crucial. We intend on informing and educating you, the small mining and public land use community on your rights. An educated small mining community is a powerful force and we are dedicated to completing this as soon as we can.

VIDEOS:
We have a new video in the can and only need to edit it and toss it out there. It is of a prospecting trip we took last week in the heart of our south Mother Lode cluster of claims near Yosemite. Good gold, very good gold. We will also be filming our speaking engagement in Reno Monday and making that available on Youtube for other gold clubs who want to hear that message of unity and calls to action. Gold clubs can then play this video at their meetings and get their members engaged to help combat the attack on public lands and small mining. We hope to have it available by next week some time.

AMRA CLAIMS:
AMRA currently has claims in Idaho (3), one in Arizona out of Wickenberg, and about 25 in California from the Feather river drainage to the Mojave, from San Luis Obispo to Fresno and a huge cluster in Mariposa and Tuolumne counties. As stated, we will be picking up two claims in OR next week and have already found two great claims in central Washington near Ellensburg. We have a good friend and highly experienced miner prospecting some claims in Nevada shortly and are very hopeful on these claims. We are very, very actively working on 4 or 5 additional claims in Idaho. These are the best of the best and we are extremely excited to add these. We are also working on claims in Montana, Alaska, North Dakota and Colorado. Due to the fact that the current Administration in Washington DC changed the cost structure to file claims, it is expensive to pick up new claims folks, very expensive. The cost to file a 160 acre claim went from $165.00 to $1,320.00 overnight a few years ago. Stunning example of the attack on small mining. We have created a KML/KMZ (Google Earth) file which shows the outlined areas of AMRA claims and hope to have that available shortly.

AMRA STAFF:
We have added a remarkable new AMRA staff member, Stacy. As AMRA grows, we have found we really needed someone to handle the logistical and behind the scenes management functions of AMRA and we found the perfect person. We are lucky to have Stacy and are very excited that she brings a wealth of experience and will finally organize our operations. Please welcome Stacy to the staff. We have also added Mike Dahl as our Public Relations Manager and are astounded at his commitment and “hit the ground running” start. Jon Siptrott, our Outings Coordinator has completely taken that responsibility on and frankly, we can breathe as Jon has exceeded all our expectations on coordinating these events. John Ratley, Field Manager is still out there…….doing nothing but looking pretty. Just kidding, John is the most crucial manager we have, without John, AMRA would struggle (namely me) with keeping up with the 150 emails AMRA receives daily from miners all across America who have problems with Federal agencies, the endless meetings and phone calls, the barrage of regulations we must fight daily just to keep us mining and just being my friend, my dear friend who keeps me in this fight and reminds me to keep going. There are many more in your AMRA and I thank them all for their commitment to make a difference. Please know that all of our AMRA staff is completely comprised of volunteers, nobody is compensated and they should be thanked for their devotion to this fight.

FINALLY:
We will leave you with this, this is a picture of Emily, our favorite miner. Emily is the Granddaughter of one of our AMRA members and as you can see, cute as a button. What will you do to make sure Emily has the same rights, the same access and the same freedoms we have enjoyed? When we ask for help on calls to action (writing letters to Congressmen, Federal agencies and the like) write the letters, make the calls and get involved. Join AMRA, support PLP, join GPAA and support WMA. Join one, join all, but don’t complain if you do not support the fight. We cannot do this alone, there are no saviors. If we unite, we can become the loud voice it will take to retain our rights and keep what we love for future generations.

Get in this fight, before it is too late.

AMRA