Conservation Groups File Notice to Sue Feds Over New Gold Mine

For more than 40 years, the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area has been a protected home to more than 2.3 million acres of rugged mountains, diverse wildlife and pristine rivers. Designated in 1980, the deep Salmon River Canyon contributes to the largest contiguous Wilderness in the Lower 48. 

Now, local and national conservation groups say the pristine home of the Nez Perce tribe is under threat after federal agencies approved the Stibnite Gold Project, an open-pit cyanide-leach gold mine that the plaintiffs say would compromise wildlife, human and habitat health. 

On February 18, Save the South Fork Salmon, Idaho Conservation League, Center for Biological Diversity, and American Rivers filed a 60-day notice announcing the intent to bring civil action against the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forest, and National Marine Fisheries Service. The plaintiffs argue the agencies violated the Endangered Species Act by not protecting threatened Chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout, wolverines, and whitebark pine from the proposed mine expansion. 

Rivers don’t necessarily follow political boundaries, and what happens upstream could impact watershed systems downriver. Environmentally, Stibnite Mine could have broader implications for surrounding areas including the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

“The impacts to the South Fork Salmon River watershed, threatened fish and wildlife, public access, clean air, clean water, and world-class recreation from the Stibnite Gold Project are simply unacceptable,” John Robison, public lands and wildlife director for the Idaho Conservation League, said in a February 18 press release. “Given the recent layoffs at the Payette National Forest, we are concerned about the Forest Service’s ability to manage this high-risk project in addition to all their other responsibilities.”

Similar mining proposals around Montana and in Greater Yellowstone also face scrutiny amid growing environmental concerns. An approved copper mine at the headwaters of the Smith River could threaten drinking water and streamflows along its banks, while conservation efforts along the northern border of Yellowstone National Park have over the years battled to prohibit gold mine operations in the area. 

Tess McEnroe, former communications director at the nonprofit water conservation group Idaho Rivers United, said that Stibnite is another example of the “wrong mine in the wrong place.” 

“This is the last best Chinook and bull trout spawning habitat in the Lower 48,” McEnroe said. “And the Forest Service environmental impact statement said that the Stibnite Mine will affect — and basically destroy — the watershed for 100 years at a minimum. 

“This presents an example of the wildlife corridor effect,” she continued. “Migration pathways for wolverines, elk, moose and big terrestrial mammals could be impacted by the Stibnite Mine because of sound pollution and traffic. Those animals then have to go somewhere, which could be into Yellowstone and encroach on other nearby habitats.”  

The filing came in response to the Forest Service’s Environmental Impact Statement decision earlier this year to proceed with the mine. This process involves processing the plan for the open-pit mine, new road construction and utility upgrades, among other things. 

Perpetua Resources’ proposed mine site is 45 air miles east of McCall, Idaho, at the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River, an area encompassing approximately 3,500 acres, according to the mining site’s filing on the Federal Permitting Dashboard. Construction reportedly involves excavating three open pits, contributing to 280 million tons of waste rock. One tailing mind would extend more than 720 feet beneath the riverbed of the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River. 

Mining in the Stibnite area dates back to 1899 during the Thunder Mountain Gold Rush that launched a decades-long migration of miners to the Stibnite-Yellow Pine mining district. Mining in the Yellow Pine pit began in 1938, roughly 4 miles from the town of the historic mining district of Stibnite in the Payette National Forest. 

From the early 1900s to the late 1990s, the mine was a major producer of antimony and gold, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. Past mining activities deposited metals and mine tailings across the site and contributed to potential contaminants, waste piles, process ponds, unmaintained tunnels, and an open-pit mine. Associated contaminants include heavy metals including arsenic and cyanide in the soil, groundwater, surface water and sediments. 

The EPA proposed listing the Stibnite Mining Area on the National Priorities List in 2001, which includes Superfund sites of national priority. However, the State of Idaho did not agree with the listing, leaving the EPA and Forest Service to perform reclamation and remediation activities. Twenty years later, in 2021, the EPA also ordered immediate cleanup at Stibnite citing decades of water quality concerns. 

Opponents of the mine filed 130 objections to the final decision inciting what they say are flaws in the mining plan, one being its impact on protected species. 

The South Fork of the Salmon River drains 827,000 acres of central Idaho, an area larger than the State of Rhode Island. More than 200 species of birds inhabit the area, as well as large mammals like deer, elk, cougar, goat, sheep, the gray wolf, and the endangered Chinook salmon. 

The National Marine Fisheries Service previously designated the region as a critical habitat for Chinook salmon, including all tributaries of the Salmon River that currently are or were previously accessible to the species. Within critical habitat, federal agencies must avoid actions “that would destroy or adversely modify that critical habitat.” 

“The South Fork Salmon River contains the most important remaining habitat for summer chinook salmon in the Columbia River basin. The fish were once the largest, most valuable segment of the world's largest runs of chinook salmon,” according to the Forest Service. “Their numbers have drastically declined in the wake of several factors: habitat blocked by dams, overfishing in marine and freshwater fisheries, habitat degradation, hatchery competition, and mortality of juveniles and adults at the Snake and Columbia River hydroelectric projects.” 

One main factor in the population decline has been habitat degradation, including ecosystem areas destroyed by mining efforts. 

Perpetua Resources says that the redevelopment of the abandoned mine site is essential for national defense. The Idaho-based company adds that it anticipates investing more than $1 billion and providing 550 jobs to rural Idaho during operations. 

“Expected to be one of the highest-grade open pit gold mines in the country, the Project contains an estimated 4.8-million-ounce gold reserve and is anticipated to produce 450,000 ounces of gold annually over the first four years of production,” the company wrote in a January 6 press release. 

“In addition,” it stated, “the estimated 148-million-pound antimony reserve is the only identified antimony reserve in the United States and is expected to supply roughly 35% of U.S. demand in the first six years of operations.”

Stibnite is a soft mineral containing sulfur and antimony, a native metal used for “technological and industrial purposes” including liquid metal batteries and brake parts for cars.

If approved, the site would be the fourth-largest gold operation in the U.S. by grade, the concentration of minerals in the ore, and the only domestic source of mined antimony. Under the 1872 Mining Law, the mining company theoretically would be allowed to extract minerals from public lands without paying royalties to the American people. 

McEnroe is concerned the Stibnite Mine Project could set an example for future mining efforts.

“All mines aren’t bad, but being governed by this law is modern,” she said. “We know so much more now about where mines could go that doesn’t affect communities and wildlife as much. It’s setting this precedent of public lands being completely enshrined with this problematic law. Mining is not going to stop, but more mines like Stibnite are going to be approved because of that law.”

Before the plan moves forward, the Forest Service must approve revisions to Perpetua’s operations plan, accept reclamation cost estimates, and review financial assurances. Federal and state permits have yet to be issued.