Bromwich takes on drilling reform

It’s not a role he had envisioned himself in, after a career involving probes of FBI misconduct and problems at the Houston police department.

“My entire career has been in the criminal justice system,” said Bromwich, the director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE).

“I have obviously thought about various public service opportunities in the last 11 years. I did not think it would be anywhere outside of Justice. I certainly didn’t think it would be here,” Bromwich, 57, told The Hill in an exclusive interview Thursday at Interior’s headquarters.

But Bromwich, who has made a career out of conducting high-profile investigations, said his lack of oil industry experience has been an asset in the role he began last June while tens of thousands of gallons of oil were still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

“I think there are huge benefits from not coming from this world,” Bromwich said.

“I have asked a lot of questions on issues that were just taken for granted — they were the accepted ways of doing business here, they were the accepted practices and procedures,” he said.

Within days of arriving at BOEMRE, for instance, Bromwich announced the agency would form an internal investigations unit to probe allegations of misconduct by federal employees and energy companies.

But Bromwich has his share of critics.

Nearly a year after taking over as head of Interior’s offshore drilling arm, Bromwich is under fire from the oil industry, Republicans and Gulf Coast lawmakers from both parties, who have ripped him over what they call an unacceptably slow approval pace for drilling permits.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) cleared her throat with praise for Bromwich when asked Wednesday about his tenure. She called him a “gentleman” who has been respectful and attentive to her requests for meetings. But her praise quickly turned to criticism.

“[H]e didn’t really have, when he came into this job, a real understanding of how this industry operates, and it has been a real challenge,” Landrieu said, alleging this has “set the process back” for post-spill development.

Gold Panning Methods That Can Be Rewarding » Mine Gold

The majority of people who have no knowledge of panning for gold can do simple gold panning methods. However, there are more elaborate gold panning methods that can yield better results.

Standard Panning Method

Part of gold panning methods needs the use of standard pans with a diameter measuring 16 inches and depth measuring 2.5 inches. Some may favor smaller pans, particularly for newbies, to easily spot the tiny bits of gold pieces compared to bigger pans.

However, bigger pans are used when attempting to scour a large area of gravel to be panned. Others may use iron pans because iron turns blue when heated. The gold bits, having a bright luminous yellow color will be simply seen.

A professional gold “panner” having the accuracy and speed can pan up to one cubic yard in a day – only thru the use of gold pan, heater and tweezers. To extract more gold, some folks adopt their own methodologies. The technique mentioned above is used when the gravel is wet. On the other hand, if it is dry, some may use the elements mercury and magnetite. Since the processes are elaborate, when gold pieces are few, it would possibly not be worth all the hard work.

The Potato Method

One of the simplest methods is the “potato method.” this technique uses the potato plant in removing the gold. When the procedure uses mercury, the potato is suited to remove this element. Potato can soak up the mercury and the leftover from the mercury-black, sand-gold amalgam will be gold itself. Others may use the nitric acid to wash away the mercury through heating the water with the amalgam.

Vaporization

Another method is to eliminate the mercury thru the vaporization, which is known as “retorting.” It uses a pipe-shaped material where the amalgam is placed on one end and the other end is heated.

Depending on the selected gold panning methods , ensure that it is done rigorously and efficiently. Always take care to respect and preserve the environment in which you are panning. And to ensure you have a successful experience, always use the right Gold Panning Tools .

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