A planned open-pit cyanide leach gold mine in Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains would jeopardize public health and clean water, harm endangered species, violate Indigenous treaty rights, and permanently scar thousands of acres of public land in the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River, a coalition of local and national conservation groups said.
In comments submitted Monday to the U.S. Forest Service, the groups urged the Service to reject the proposed Stibnite Gold Project, which would resume mining activities in the Stibnite Mining District in the Payette National Forest. Instead, the groups said, officials should accelerate clean-up efforts at the site, an eligible Superfund site polluted from decades of historic cyanide leach gold mining and milling.
The mining company, Perpetua Resources, wants to double the size of the historic mine site to 3,265 acres and excavate three open-pit mines. The proposed Yellow Pine pit would extend more than 700 feet beneath the East Fork South Fork Salmon River, requiring the river to be rerouted through a concrete tunnel during mining activities until the pit is eventually backfilled with mine waste.
LINK (via Center For Biological Diversity)
