Tribe objects to Forest Service approval of gold mine

The Nez Perce Tribe accused the U.S. Forest Service on Monday of violating its treaty rights by approving a giant, open-pit gold mine in the headwaters of the South Fork of the Salmon River — an area where tribal members have fished for hundreds of generations.

A mining plan proposed by Perpetua Resources and accompanying environmental documentation was signed Friday by Payette National Forest Supervisor Matthew Davis.

The Boise-based company still has additional permits and approvals to acquire, but the greenlight from Davis means the controversial project is more likely than ever to be implemented.

Nez Perce people continue to fish in the South Fork of the Salmon River drainage, exercising rights reserved in its 1855 and 1863 treaties with the U.S. Government. In addition, the tribe, which has an extensive fisheries program, spends about $3 million there annually in an effort to recover chinook, steelhead and bull trout. All three species are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The tribe contends the project and the waste it will create will destroy fish habitat in the mining footprint and pose a threat to downstream water quality and habitat.

“Following an exhaustive review of Perpetua’s mine plans over the last eight years, we believe the Forest Service’s approval of the mine violates an agreement the United States made by treaty with the Nez Perce people 170 years ago,” said Shannon F. Wheeler, chairperson of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee in a news release. “Our treaty-reserved rights are fundamental to the culture, identity, economy and sovereignty of the Nez Perce people. The tribe is extremely disappointed with the Forest Service’s decision to approve this mine and is evaluating next steps.”

The company and its allies celebrated the approval. Perpetua Resources projects the mine will create more than 500 jobs and yield 4.8 million ounces of gold in its first four years of operation. The mine, holding an estimated 148-million-pound antimony reserve, is also expected to be the sole domestic source of the strategic mineral used in munitions and batteries.

“We are thrilled to receive our Final Record of Decision from the Forest Service,” said Jon Cherry, president and CEO of Perpetua Resources, in a news release. “This approval elevates the Stibnite Gold Project to an elite class of projects in America that have cleared (National Environmental Permit Act permitting). The Stibnite Gold Project can deliver decisive wins for our communities, the environment, the economy, and our national security.”

Its location in the remote heart of central Idaho along rivers and streams that provide critical habitat for threatened fish, plus its proximity to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Areas and adjacent roadless forests, has attracted vigorous opposition from the tribe and conservation organizations.

They fear the mine will exacerbate existing water quality problems in the East Fork of the South Fork Salmon River. The Stibnite District, east of McCall and near the tiny enclave of Yellow Pine, was mined from the early 1930s through World War II. Previous owners left behind a legacy of pollution that seeps from tailings piles and fouls water quality.

Environmentalists noted Davis and his agency largely dismissed the objections they filed following draft approval of the mining plan last fall. The plan allows the company to dig three open pits while doubling the footprint of past mining at the site. John Robison, public lands and wildlife director for the Idaho Conservation League likened it to open-heart surgery.

“The South Fork Salmon River, and the watershed will be worse off as a result, not better,” he said in a news release. “We are deeply disappointed that the Forest Service dismissed our suggestions to correct significant flaws in the project. Even the Forest Service’s own analysis states that doing nothing is better for the environment than building the Stibnite Gold Project.”

The company has pledged to use a portion of mining profits to clean up the old pollution there and to restore fish passage on the East Fork of the South Fork that previous mining blocked. It is busy seeking to raise the estimated $1.3 billion to pay for construction of the mine and hopes to acquire other needed state and federal permits early this year, including one from the Army Corps of Engineers that would allow it to discharge pollutants like sediment into streams. The tribe is seeking to influence that process.

“The tribe’s treaties with the United States are the supreme law of the land and remain binding,” Wheeler said.

In the tribe’s news release, he noted the negative history gold mining has played for the Nez Perce people. Soon after the ink dried on the 1855 treaty, in which the Nez Perce ceded millions of acres of land to the federal government in exchange for reserved rights and a 7.5 million-acre reservation, gold was discovered at Pierce. Miners and other settlers rushed in, ignoring the tribe’s exclusive right to the area. In response, the federal government forced the 1863-treaty on the tribe that shrank the reservation to about 750,000 acres.

“Since it first arrived in the tribe’s homeland, gold mining has only served to dispossess the Nez Perce people,” Wheeler said. “By every indication, this mine will be no different.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com.