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August 23, 2016

California court upholds ban on vacuums to extract gold

  • Suction dredges are underwater vacuums that suck up rocks, gravel and sand from riverbeds to filter out gold.
    • By SUDHIN THANAWALA
    Associated Press

    SAN FRANCISCO — California's ban on the use of suction dredges to extract gold from rivers is legal and not overridden by a 19th century federal law that allows mining on federal land, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

    The court's unanimous decision was a victory for environmentalists and a blow to miners, who argued that the ban essentially stopped gold mining because doing it by hand is labor intensive and makes the enterprise unprofitable.


     
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