Nevada County court denied Rise Gold’s vested mining rights claim at the Idaho-Maryland Mine but recognized a historic right existed until abandonment in the 1960s. Rise plans to appeal while repositioning the project as a strategic tungsten asset amid national security concerns, pointing toward eventual negotiated resolution.

“[The outcome] emerged from a sequence of decisions: early approvals without clear vesting analysis, an environmental review that struggled to build public confidence, internal reversals of staff recommendations, and final actions that shifted the dispute from regulation to litigation.”

“We have evidence that certain parties have conspired to co-opt public agencies to pressure the Board of Supervisors […] to vote to deny the Project at the future Board hearing,” wrote Ben Mossman.

On the steps of the Nevada County administrative building, a huge crowd gathered both for and against the Rise Gold mining proposal.

Free bus rides if you drink the Kool-Aid!

William Bowers Bourn was the original owner of the Empire Mine Company. According to Roger A. Lescohler in The Story of the Empire Mine, 1850-1956, Bourn was a descendant of Jared Bourn “who came from England in 1630 with John Winthrop, the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.”