The miners appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which rejected their argument that the ban on suction dredge mining was a state land use planning law. The eight individual miners, three companies and a mining district also challenged the state’s designation of certain waters as “essential salmon habitat.”Īccording to the miners, the moratorium “renders effective exploration for valuable mineral deposits on federal lands within a closed area impossible” and interferes with the “federal purpose of fostering and encouraging mineral development on federal land.”Ī district court judge ruled in favor of the state, concluding that the senate bill was a reasonable environmental regulation allowed by federal law.

Three months before Oregon enacted the moratorium, a group of miners sued the state in federal court, claiming federal law pre-empts the ban.

Suction dredge mining sucks up the top layer of streambeds and pumps it through sluices to seek gold and silver in placer deposits. California banned the practice nearly a decade ago, and miners in Idaho need permits for it. The state legislature later adopted a senate bill that permanently restricted the use of motorized mining equipment in “essential habitat” for those fish. In 2013, the Oregon Legislature passed a law that imposed a moratorium on suction dredge mining in any state waters that could affect the spawning ground habitat or water quality of salmon and bull trout. Circuit Judge Raymond Fisher wrote for the majority in Wednesday's opinion. “We find in these statutes no indication that Congress intended to preempt state environmental regulation merely because it might be viewed as ‘prohibitory,’” U.S. (CN) – Federal law allows Oregon’s ban on suction dredge gold mining in rivers where salmon spawn, according to a Ninth Circuit ruling against a group of miners who challenged the restrictions.

Suction dredge mining in oregon