(04-10) 17:06 PDT SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) --

The Gold Rush state adopted the nation's toughest restrictions on open-pit metallic mining Thursday. The industry said the new restrictions will virtually eliminate large-scale gold mines in California.

The regulations approved by the California State Mining and Geology Board require mining companies to refill new open-pit metal mines and flatten mine waste piles back to nearly the natural landscape, a move miners say is too expensive.

"This basically ends it," said California Mining Association Manager Adam Harper. "Gold mining helped build the state. Gold is the state mineral, so that's an irony in itself -- the mining of the state mineral has pretty much been made impossible by this regulation today."

Several high-profile mines stand to lose, including one near a sacred Indian site and one proposed within view of Death Valley National Park.

Courtney Ann Coyle, an attorney for the Quechan Indian Tribe, applauded the regulations. The tribe has waged an eight-year battle against Glamis Gold Ltd.'s proposal to mine federal land near the tribe's Fort Yuma Reservation near Winterhaven, on part of the tribe's sacred "Trail of Dreams."

Glamis has thus far seen little interest from the federal government in a buyout of its property to end the clash between its plans and the tribe's cultural sites, said company attorney and Senior Vice President Charles Jeannes.

The company is considering a legal challenge arguing that California's attempts to regulate mining on federal land are pre-empted by federal law. It also could seek state reimbursement for the lost value of its property, Jeannes said.

The company has spent $15 million seeking to develop the site, and its claim was valued by the government at "tens of millions of dollars," he said.

The Quechan tribe thought it had won when the Democratic Clinton administration blocked mine plans that would leave an open pit 4,700 feet by 2,700 feet, and 800 feet deep, along with piles of waste rock a mile long and up to 300 feet high.

But the Republican Bush administration reversed the decision in 2001. Another setback came last fall when Democratic Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill to protect sacred Indian lands from mining and other activities.

On Monday, Davis signed a more specific law aimed squarely at Reno, Nev.-based Glamis' plans. On Thursday, he dispatched Resources Secretary Mary Nichols to lobby for the back-fill regulations before the mining board he appointed, which had approved similar emergency regulations in December.

Also affected by the new regulations would be Canyon Resources Briggs Corp., which mines on the border of Death Valley National Park in the Panamint Mountains. The company is seeking permission to explore mining federal land five miles north of its current mine, a move opposed by the Timbisha Shoshone tribe and environmental groups.

Board members said the new regulations essentially implement the intent of a law on the books since 1975 that said pit mines should be restored to beneficial use. Local governments have generally defined the depleted mines as open space, landfills, recreational lakes or water recharge basins rather than requiring they be restored.

The steep walls generally make such mines useless for recreation, the board said. Cyanide used to leach precious metals from lower grade ore can remain behind, turning the pit into a toxic lake that can never be used for recreation or wildlife, said environmental groups.

Creative uses have been found elsewhere, and backfilling has its own environmental impacts, said the mining association's Harper. But given the new regulations, he said large commercial operators will look to other states to mine gold and other precious metals.
 

Board: www.consrv.ca.gov/SMGB/