RD807 - Potential Impacts of Gold Mining and Processing in the Commonwealth – December 1, 2022
Executive Summary: Gold is a yellow, dense, and soft metal. Its chemical symbol is Au, and it is found most commonly as free gold in nature, often associated with quartz, pyrite and other sulfide minerals. It may be found as little more than a trace within other minerals or may be alloyed to a small extent with other metals such as silver. It is ductile, malleable, and sectile, a good conductor of heat and electricity, and is unaffected by air and most reagents. Gold has many applications, primarily investing, but also photography, dentistry, electronics, plating, jewelry, currency, and as an international monetary standard. Fast Facts on Gold in Virginia(*1) Year of first production in Virginia: around 1804 Gold was mined extensively in Virginia from the early 1800s until the peak of gold production in 1849. In that year, major gold discoveries in California had a negative impact on Virginia’s gold mining industry, and production declined rapidly. Commercial gold mining continued on a smaller scale until 1947, when gold production was last recorded in Virginia. In Virginia, gold was mined from near-surface lode deposits, veins, mineralized zones, and placer deposits. Most of Virginia’s gold mining was in the “Gold-pyrite belt", a nine-mile to sixteen-milewide, nearly 140 mile-long northeast trending volcanic-plutonic belt that extends from Fairfax County to southwestern Buckingham County. The largest concentrations of historical gold mines are in Buckingham, Fluvanna, Louisa, Goochland, and Spotsylvania counties. Other abandoned gold mines and prospects are scattered widely in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont geologic provinces. Currently, there is only one active gold mine operation in the Commonwealth. Located in Goochland County, the Moss mine operates on a restricted permit issued by Virginia Energy. The Code of Virginia allows restricted permits to be issued when the mine disturbs less than one acre of land and removes less than 500 tons of minerals. The Moss operation “remines" at a legacy gold mine. Gold that was technically infeasible to mine originally is collected and mechanically separated from the leftover rock and legacy contaminants are remediated. In 2021, the General Assembly passed HB2213 due to increased gold prospecting taking place in Buckingham County. This bill directed Secretariats of Commerce and Trade, Natural and Historic Resources, and Health and Human Resources to study the potential impacts of gold mining and processing in the Commonwealth. The Secretariats were directed to form a stakeholder work group and report its findings to the General Assembly by December 1, 2022. The stakeholder group was required to contain “experts in mining, hydrology, toxicology, geology, and public health; environmental organizations; representatives of potentially affected communities in localities with significant deposits of gold; and residents of Native American communities…" To fully meet these requirements, Virginia Energy divided the work group into two parts. The first part consists of independent technical experts from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). The second group consists of state agency representatives and other stakeholders, many from the Buckingham area. The list of participants from the “State Agency Component" (SAC) can be found here. Each group drafted its own scope of work and report. This document contains both reports. The SAC held 10 public meetings between December 2021 and November 2022. Every meeting was held in Buckingham County and was livestreamed over the internet. All recordings are available on Virginia Energy’s website.(*2) Additionally, Virginia Energy created a forum on the Regulatory Town Hall website(*3) and a dedicated email address to receive public comment. A summary of comments received can be found below and the actual comments are contained in an appendix to this report. The contents of this report are based upon the SAC’s Statement of Task on which the members of the SAC came to consensus.(*4) STATE AGENCY COMPONENT STATEMENT OF TASK The SAC agreed to focus on: • Environmental justice concerns of potentially impacted (including downstream) communities. Though gold prospecting activity has taken place in Buckingham County, it is not at all a certainty that a gold mine will be proposed. As NASEM noted in its report, only 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 10,000 of prospected sites will become a productive mine.(*5) Only recently did the Virginia General Assembly establish the promotion of environmental justice (EJ) as the policy of the Commonwealth. As such, state agencies have had little time to amend their regulations to fully integrate environmental justice into its permitting processes. Given that many EJ communities are located in or near the Gold-pyrite belt or could be affected by mining operations, it is important that the bedrock EJ principles of fair treatment and meaningful involvement are incorporated into potential gold mining permitting, unlikely though it may be to occur. As the Gold-pyrite belt and the location of exploration activities in Buckingham County are in close proximity to the James River, it is important to note that the potential impacts from gold mining and processing could be felt far from the boundaries of the mine. Virginia currently has 427 mineral mine permits located across the Commonwealth. Most of these sites produce sand and gravel, aggregate and crushed stone. As such, Virginia’s existing regulatory scheme does not contemplate the mining and processing of gold, which has not taken place at a large scale since before World War II. Virginia is a Dillon’s Rule state. This means that localities only have authority that is granted to them by the state legislature. The Virginia General Assembly has given localities the authority to regulate or prohibit mining. Additionally, localities can generally affect mining operations through their zoning authority. Thus, state and local approvals are necessary before any mining activity can take place in the Commonwealth. |
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