"Simple open pit & heap leach, Simple = low cost"! That's what the Kore Mining Long Valley Project webpage is advertising.

Kore Mining proposes to construct a total of fourteen drilling pads, measuring 30 feet by 50 feet each. Access to these drill pads will require re-opening roughly a third of a mile of road for the duration of the project. Impacts of this proposed project include: local quality of life, tourism, air quality, noise pollution, decimated habitat of local flora and fauna (including endangered sage grouse and local deer). The impacts of the exploration might be only the beginning, however. If the company finds a sufficient quantity of gold to mine, that activity could affect important habitats, create long lasting water pollution issues, and forever scar Long Valley. 

If you live, work, or recreate in the Eastern Sierra and have concerns about the impact of this proposed project, or the prospects of larger scale mining in this scenic and important landscape, we encourage you to submit your comments by May 6, 2021 and ensure your concerns are included in the Inyo National Forest’s analysis. Let Inyo National Forest know you oppose categorical exclusion and request that Kore Mining provide an environmental assessment.  If the project becomes a categorical exclusion there will be no other time to participate.

Submit comments electronically here. This may be the exploration that turns into an industrial-scale open pit mining operation that permanently scars this important landscape.