295 



Senator Hecht. Mr. Wallace Cavanaugh, with Crown Develop- 

 ment and Mining, Wellington, Nevada. 



STATEMENT OF WALLACE J. CAVANAUGH, CROWN 

 DEVELOPMENT & MINING CO., WELLINGTON, NV 



Mr. Cavanaugh. I thought I would be speaking to Senator 

 Bumpers when I made this next statement. I am going to carefully 

 read it because since it involves you. 



Last year a similar bill as S. 59 was submitted in the 99th Con- 

 gress, but it failed to get out of committee because of certain defi- 

 ciencies which have since been corrected by this bill. 



I am particularly appreciative of Senator Hecht's action to with- 

 hold a decision on last year's bill until these deficiencies could be 

 addressed. I am aware he did so in spite of severe criticism from 

 the Nevada press and other supporters of the bill. 



The result of his efforts is an improved bill, one that I can sup- 

 port rather than oppose. The people of Nevada are indeed fortu- 

 nate to have a person with such foresight and political fortitude as 

 Senator Hecht to represent their interests in the United States 

 Senate. 



Senator Hecht. You can have all the time you want. 



Mr. Cavanaugh. Thank you. I thought that might help a little 

 bit. I am going to try to paraphrase the rest of the information I 

 have. 



I have been developing a group of mines for many years, actually 

 29 years to be exact, in the Pine Grove district of Lyon County, 

 Nevada. This is all within the Toiyabe National Forest. The BLM 

 land in question borders on this forest area known as the Pine 

 Grove flats. 



Recent advances in cyanide processing technology has made gold 

 production a very productive operation, and has made the possibili- 

 ty of Pine Grove being a productive operation as well. 



The Forest Service in that area has opposed the chemical milling 

 process because of the sensitive nature of the environmental issues 

 inherent in the use of cyanide. The State of Nevada agencies which 

 have jurisdiction over the controls have given full approval for the 

 project. 



The problem I have had with the Forest Service, I just brought 

 along because I hope to talk to the Forest Service this week, they 

 have taken exception to the process and they prolonged the appli- 

 cation procedures for about three years on this project, and there is 

 nearly 500 pages of personal correspondence and another 350 pages 

 of legal correspondence that has really held up the project. 



For example, off the record here, you are talking about in this 

 Aerojet thing about $40 to $400 evaluation. The Forest Service is 

 requiring bonds that amount to $500,000 to $100,000 per acre eval- 

 uation. 



Now this is not realistic. It is a form of intimidation to keep me 

 from mining. As a matter of fact, after about three years in a lot of 

 this nonsense, I am wondering why I am in the business. But I got 

 the idea that maybe they really did not want me in their forest 

 with the cyanide operation. 



