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You have to respect the Buckingham County Planning Commission’s work. And they have done the work. They’ve held meetings that ran for several hours over the last two months, listening to everyone from mine owners to state officials in order to make a recommendation when it comes to gold mining. But, with one meeting left to go, we still haven’t heard from “the other side”, so to speak. And that’s what’s needed before a vote is taken.

Let’s be clear. As these meetings and testimony have shown, banning the practice of gold mining is a bit more complicated than you’d think. If you vote to ban all metallic mining, as Buckingham supervisors are considering, then you put at risk some of the county’s currently operating mineral mines

The issue is that, in the eyes of the state and federal governments, there’s no distinction between metal mining and mineral mining. Kyanite Mining Corporation, which mines and sells kyanite ore in Buckingham, pulls out iron as part of its mineral mining process. If metallic mining is banned, does that mean Kyanite’s Buckingham operation would have to find a new way of processing what they find? Would they still be able to sell the iron?

One of the things that concerns residents is the possible use of cyanide. But cyanide is only used in small deposit mining and the ones found in Buckingham are too large for that procedure to apply. If you ban the chemical itself in Buckingham, what does that mean for herbicides, pesticides and even cigarette smoke? All of those are things that use cyanide.

As I said, we’ve heard all that. The planning commission has brought in state officials, who explained there really is no difference, in the eyes of the state, between metallic mining and mineral mining. Instead, they said, it’s only a choice between metallic/mineral mining and coal mining.

But in listening to all of that, we’re still missing one portion. We’ve still not heard from the opposition, the group completely opposed to gold or any type of metallic mining. As I understand it, one of the opposition group members is set to present at the Monday, April 19 planning commission meeting with a 20 minute time limit, but is that enough? Is it enough to hear from all these experts and then give the opposition only 20 minutes to present their side of the argument? They’re going to be allowed to simply read from the state gold mining committee report, the same one we covered as it was being assembled last fall. Don’t we need a few more voices?

By that, I mean don’t they deserve the same opportunity, to bring in some experts to explain their position? Their argument is that a ban on mining just doesn’t work, because corporations claim any anti-mining laws deprive them of certain rights. Instead, they propose a “prove it first” ordinance.

This ordinance requires applicants to produce one instance of a mining operation anywhere in the world, similar in type and scope, which succeeded in operating without poisoning the people and environment in which it was located. If they can show a similar example, they would be granted approval to operate. If they can’t, the project can’t move forward.

Instead of simply reading from the state report on the issue, doesn’t it make sense to let this group have the same opportunity to bring in experts who can speak to that concept? It’s a chance for planning commission members to ask questions, get more detail and then, when it’s finished, be able to say they heard from literally every side in this debate before making a recommendation to the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors.

And it’s not like there’s a rush. There’s no current gold mine operating in Buckingham County. Now yes, Aston Bay is in the process of prospecting, but as their own CEO told The Herald earlier this year, this is a long-term event. We’re talking years before the prospecting portion is finished and then even longer to secure bidders and possibly sell the mining rights. Buckingham can afford to take a couple more months, if needed, to make sure the right ordinance gets put in place to protect them. And I’m not saying which one of the several proposals currently on the table is the right one.

What I am saying is in order to be fair, all groups involved in this should have the same opportunities.

BRIAN CARLTON is the editor for The Farmville Herald and Farmville Newsmedia, LLC. He can be reached at Brian.Carlton@FarmvilleHerald. com.