Emgold said quietly this week that it is going to ask the City of Grass Valley to put the EIR process on hold for reopening the Idaho-Maryland Mine for another “60 to 90 days,” because it needs to raise money to complete the funding of the EIR. I hope people who keep betting on this project understand what’s going on here. The hurdles need to be more clearly – and widely – understood.
The statement is here:
Idaho-Maryland Project Update
Emgold’s 100% owned subsidiary, Idaho-Maryland Mining Corporation (“IMMC”) submitted its revised Permit Applications to the City of Grass Valley in April, 2011. The Applications were accepted by the City in May 2011. The City is currently in the process of completing a competitive bid process to select a consultant to complete the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) and Final EIR for the Idaho-Maryland Project (described below). On October 12th, the City of Grass Valley interviewed three potential bidders. From these bidders, the selection panel for the City recommended Ascent Environmental, with offices in Sacramento and Stateline Nevada. Sub-consultants to Ascent will include Golder Associates, a global leader in mine related environmental, engineering, and reclamations projects, Fehr and Peers for traffic analysis, and Hausrath Economic Group for economic analysis. The contract with Ascent will be reviewed by Grass Valley City Council on November 8th. Subsequently a Reimbursement Agreement may be completed between the City and IMMC to fund the scope of work, which would be payable by IMMC as the Project Applicant. The completion of the Final EIR is expected to take approximately 12 months after work is initiated.
Upon completion of selection of the final bidder and prior to signing the Reimbursement Agreement, IMMC will request that the City of Grass Valley put the Idaho-Maryland Project temporarily on hold, to allow the Company 60-90 days to evaluate strategic alternatives to fund the completion of the EIR Process. IMMC does not plan to move forward with the EIR Process until sufficient funds are in place to ensure successful completion of the entire EIR.
The rest of the statement is here:
Filed under: Uncategorized
The Nevada County Green Party is about to start organizing another forum about IMM. Emgold will be invited to be one of the panelists.
If they can’t fund the EIR, will this nightmare finally come to an end?
I’m kind of curious how Ascent would feel about winning a contract and then being told to wait 60 to 90 days before it starts and then being told it may not actually happen at all. So much for IMMC being nice to contractors…?