Threats

Hard-rock mining continues to threaten this spectacular landscape in the Bodie Hills. More than 200 active mining claims remain in the Bodie Hills as of 2018. Industrial scale resource development and extraction has not been a sustainable economic driver in the region; the coalition believes that threatening natural resources and heritage tourism will not only hurt the health of the community’s economy, but it will also hurt the region’s quality of life. Cougar Gold, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest gold exploration companies, Electrum, was interested in 2011 in large-scale gold mining exploration and may become again. Hard-rock mining is always a boom-and-bust enterprise and would degrade the scenic, historic and habitat values of the Bodie Hills and would undermine sustainable economic development through tourism and recreation.