After interest waned in 2013 over proposals to mine for gold in the dredge tailings on county-owned land in Sumpter Valley, the Baker County Commission is exploring the possibility once again.

Several mining companies — including Sumpter Mining Company and Exploration LLC and Yellow Eagle Mining LLC — expressed interest in working with the county in 2011 to mine some of the 1,900 acres of tailings the county owns east of Sumpter.

Yellow Eagle submitted a report to the county in 2011 explaining its interest. The company believed that the massive floating dredges that scoured Sumpter Valley gravels from 1913 to 1954 collected only 40 percent of the available gold.

Interest in potential gold reserves was spurred in 2011 by record-high gold prices that topped $1,800 per ounce that year.

Gold prices have tumbled since then, though, to about $1,200 per ounce.

The county received no responses in 2013 when it sent out a public solicitation regarding the dredge tailings.

But the situation has changed again, said County Commission Chairman Bill Harvey.

At a commission work session Wednesday, Harvey said the county has been contacted by people interested in mining the dredge tailings. He did not name the interested parties.

Jason Yencopal, the county’s emergency services manager who oversaw the county’s solicitation in 2013, said a consultant he had previously contacted charged $75 per hour to write a Request for Proposals for mining the dredge tailings. That consultant is willing to help the county write such a request.

Yencopal said he doesn’t have an estimated cost for that work.

Commissioners directed Yencopal to gather more information to present at their June 15 meeting.

Commissioner Mark Bennett said it was important that the Request for Proposals is written to ensure the county would not be held liable for possible issues that could come up with mining operations.

“The moment you put a bucket down there and start messing with water in that bull trout habitat and in some of these others, they (miners) are going to have to have a really good plan,” Bennett said. “They are going to have to have the blessing of DOGAMI (Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries), state lands and any other regulatory agencies.”

Jason McClaughry, the DOGAMI regional geologist in Baker City who attended Wednesday’s meeting, agreed with Bennett.

“I don’t work on the regulatory side,” McClaughry said. “There’s a lot of agencies that come into play — state lands, fish and wildlife, DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality).”

McClaughry said DOGAMI comes into play concerning how much material is moved and how the land is reclaimed after mining.

The latter is a major concern for the county.

“We would be just that small part of it — ensuring that the lands are reclaimed after they’re mined,” McClaughry said.

See more in the June 10, 2016, issue of the Baker City Herald.