Mining company proposes to reopen and operate a gold mine within city limits of Grass Valley, CA.
Most residents agree that the quality of Grass Valleys natural landscape is an essential part of the towns permanent economic base. Entrepreneurs, professionals, young families and retirees continue to move here to enjoy the towns extraordinary quality of life the best of old-time California located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Should the town risk sacrificing those very qualities in short-term efforts to provide a few hundred jobs in industries that are ultimately unsustainable?
This question, more than any other, is the one that elected officials, planners, and others involved in Grass Valleys long-term economic development will have to wrestle with as they decide whether or not to grant the permits and re-zoning that a junior mining company from Canada needs to reopen the Idaho-Maryland gold mine that shut down in 1956. The mine would operate for about 20 years, and close again.
Thanks to Susan Levitz
FULL STORY: Golden Gamble in Grass Valley
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