PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A gold miner convicted of illegally mining a site near a salmon stream in southern Oregon has applied to mine the same site again.
The Oregonian reports that 39-year-old Cliff Tracy has tried to mine the 5-acre site next to Sucker Creek since the mid-1990s.
He was convicted on a misdemeanor illegal mining charge in 2009, but the U.S. Forest Service says that won’t be a factor in their evaluation of his new proposal for the site near Cave Junction.
With the price of gold at all-time highs at about $1,500 an ounce, Tracy says the Forest Service can get miners to restore old mining sites like the ones that line Sucker Creek.
