Does an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) have to be prepared for every mining operation?

No… All mining projects undergo an environmental review per the requirements of CEQA at the onset of project application processing. The environmental review will evaluate the project’s potential environmental impacts and determine if an EIR is necessary. In most instances, a project’s environmental impacts can be mitigated below a level of significance, thereby avoiding the need to prepare an EIR. Surface mining operations that include a cyanide heap leach process, for the purpose of producing gold or other precious metals, automatically requires the preparation of an EIR.