FILE - The Yellow Pine Pit open-pit gold mine in the Stibnite Mining District in central Idaho, where a company hopes to start mining again, Sept. 19, 2018. The U.S. Forest Service on Friday, Oct. 28, 2022, made public an environmental study for British Columbia-based Perpetua Resources' Stibnite Gold Project about 40 miles east of McCall. (Riley Bunch/The Idaho Press-Tribune via AP, File)
FILE - The Yellow Pine Pit open-pit gold mine in the Stibnite Mining District in central Idaho, where a company hopes to start mining again, Sept. 19, 2018. The U.S. Forest Service on Friday, Oct. 28, 2022, made public an environmental study for British Columbia-based Perpetua Resources' Stibnite Gold Project about 40 miles east of McCall. (Riley Bunch/The Idaho Press-Tribune via AP, File)
Officials on the Payette National Forest will hold a series of open house meetings this week on a proposed open pit gold and antimony mine on a tributary to the Salmon River east of McCall.
Perpetua Resources, formerly Midas Gold, is seeking to reopen and expand an abandoned and polluted mine site adjacent to the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. The company is pitching the mine as an opportunity to extract valuable resources, provide jobs and ultimately to clean up a toxic mess left by miners of the past.
But the Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Conservation League contend the reopened mine would roughly double the footprint of the previous mine and risk further degradation to the area and threaten downstream chinook salmon habitat. The tribe spends nearly $3 million a year on fish recovery measures in the area.
Earlier this fall, Forest Service officials released a supplemental draft environmental impact statement that looks at the proposals and its possible risks. A public comment period will run through Jan. 10.
On Tuesday, agency officials will hold an open house meeting on the 1,600-page document at the Best Western Plus Lodge in McCall. Additional meetings will be held at the American Legion Hall in Cascade on Wednesday and at the Holiday Inn Express Airport Hotel in Boise on Thursday. All of the meetings will be held from 4:30-7 p.m. PST.
According to the study, the company hopes to extract more than 4 million ounces of gold, 1.7 million ounces of silver and 115 million pounds of antimony – a metal used in liquid metal batteries. The mine could provide up to 500 jobs and generate more than $60 million in annual tax revenue, with most going to the federal government
The operation would include reopening of two existing open pits at the Stibnite Mining District and the creation of a third pit.
The proposal includes the construction of a new access road into the remote area that would cross several inventoried roadless areas. Hazardous materials would be hauled along the route, posing the threat of spill.
According to the document, the mine could negatively affect surface water quality and quantity, wetlands, habitat for chinook salmon and bull trout, and recreation access. It could expose the Frank Church Wilderness Area to noise, light and air pollution and could reduce the treaty rights of Nez Perce Tribal members to hunt, fish and gather in usual and accustomed places.
Brian Harris, spokesperson for the Payette Forest, said the meetings are designed to provide those who attend with information so they can make substantive comments on the document. It is not a hearing where attendees have the opportunity to make statements. They can, however, submit written comments at the meetings.
Following the public comment period, Forest Service officials will analyze the comments and hope to produce a final document and draft record of decision by December 2023. Harris said Forest Supervisor Linda Jackson’s decision will be governed by federal mining regulations and the Mining Act of 1872.
“According to existing and current federal laws, the Forest Service must approve mining plans that include reasonable terms and conditions to minimize, to the extent possible, adverse environmental impacts to surface resources,” he said. “As long as projects meet those specifics there, then the projects are approved.”
If it doesn’t, he said the agency is directed to work with mining proponents to see if the proposal can be improved. If potential impacts can’t be minimized, the proposals can be rejected.
The supplemental draft environmental impact statement is available online at bit.ly/3B5djYi.
Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.
