I figured this was coming. Have they repealed the 1872 mining laws yet?
As an old miner, I’ve clashed with the Feds more than once over “guvmint rocks”.
The Forest Service even set their chief drug enforcement agent on my tail for nearly a year. I guess ‘government rocks’ (off of legally staked mining claims) are more important than the marijuana plantations and illegal aliens with AK47s guarding them in the national forests.
After the Feds lost their case, my lawyer said I’d better give up the claims anyway, for my own safety, because the guy was literally hoping for the opportunity to shoot me.
And this was during the G.H.W.Bush years. I can only imagine an 0bama minion in charge of guarding those irreplaceable government rocks.
I think that is part of this bill. Go to goldprospectors.org and sign up for the GPAA forum there. It's free to sign up and post. There is a lot of posting about this or something similar. The proposed changes came when Bush was in office but aren't being put into law until now.