Stibnite Gold Project
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STIBNITE GOLD PROJECT PAYETTE & BOISE NATIONAL FORESTS INTERMOUNTAIN REGION August 22, 2018 STIBNITE MINING DISTRICT, PAYETTE NATIONAL FOREST, KRASSEL RANGER DISTRICT Regarding Locatable Minerals , 36 CFR 228, Subpart A: requires the Forest Service to: "Where conflicting interests Respond to a mining plan, evaluate that plan must be reconciled, the Consider requirements to minimize adverse effects to the extent feasible question shall always be Comply with applicable laws, regulations and answered from the stand- standards for environmental protection point of the greatest good of Assure appropriate reclamation Further respond by following National Environmental the greatest number in the Policy Act (NEPA) processes. long run." - James Wilson, Secretary Per 36 CFR 228.4, the Forest Service is required to take of Agriculture, 1905 in a letter to Gifford action to ensure that “operations are conducted so as, Pinchot, 1st Chief of the Forest Service. where feasible, to minimize adverse environmental impacts on National Forest surface resources. 1 Table of Contents Project Context STIBNITE GOLD Project Location 4 Mining History at Stibnite 5 PROJECT Who is Midas Gold 6 Stibnite Plan of Operations PAYETTE & BOISE NATIONAL Proposed Mining Plan of FOREST - INTERMOUNTAIN REGION Operations 7 Open Pit Mining 8 Anadromous Fish - Tunnel 9 Inventoried Roadless Areas - Why is this project of interest to many Access and Powerline 10 people and organizations? Facilities During Mining Operations 10 5 million recoverable ounces of gold x Reclamation & Bonding 12 $1315.00 per ounce = $6.57 billion, and 100 to 200 million pounds of NEPA Development 12 antimony Memorandum of Understanding Cooperating Agencies 3 Open Pits NEPA Timeline Purpose & Need Rerouting of the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River Tribal & Public Participation 14 through a tunnel Native American Tribes Idaho Conservation League 17 miles of new temporary road and American Rivers United - Most 6.4 miles of new powerline in Endangered Rivers Inventoried Roadless Areas Elected Officials Forest Service Project Contact Information: webpage: https:// Keith Lannom, Forest Supervisor— www.fs.usda.gov/goto/ [email protected], 208-634-0701 StibniteGold Kathryn “Piper” Goessel, Project Manager— [email protected], 208-634-0760 Brian Harris, Forest Public Affairs— [email protected], 208-634-6945 2 Executive Summary The project is located east of McCall, Idaho, in Valley County, on the Payette National Forest with a portion of the project on the Boise National Forest. Approximately 500 acres of patented mining claims and 1,500 acres of unpatented claims on National Forest System lands are involved. A large portion of the project site is impacted by historic mining operations. Some historic impacts have been previously remediated, and Midas Gold proposes to reclaim and/or remediate other legacy mining impacts in addition to the impacts of their operation. The Plan of Operations includes the following: mining from two historic pits and one new open pit to recover gold, silver and antimony; reprocessing of historic tailings; back-filling of one pit; reconstruction of stream channels and wetlands, and restoring fish passage in the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River through the legacy Yellow Pine pit. The company is estimating a project life of approximately 21-28 years, including redevelopment and construction (2-3 years), mining and processing (12-15 years), initial closure and reclamation (2-3 years), and post-closure and monitoring (5-7 years). Preliminary issues identified include access and transportation; fisheries, wildlife, and threatened and endangered species; surface and groundwater; post-closure site management and land use; cultural and historic resources, including Tribal treaty and trust responsibilities; public health and safety; recreation; Roadless and Wilderness resources; and socioeconomics. Project-specific Forest Plan amendments will be required in order to approve the Plan of Operations. Cooperating agencies are the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Idaho Departments of Lands, Environmental Quality, and the Governor’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources, and Valley County. A third-party contractor, AECOM, has been hired to prepare the Project Area. Existing West End pit in the bottom right, and The EIS. East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River flows into the Yellow Pine pit in the mid-left of the photo. 3 Project Location The Stibnite Mining District sits atop the Idaho Batholith, one of the signature features of Idaho’s unique geology. The Mining District is officially on the Boise National Forest, but the area is administered by the Payette National Forest. The mine is located 35 air miles east of McCall, Idaho. Access to the site is via three routes. In the summer, the Lick Creek and Johnson Creek roads are the primary routes. During winter months, only the South Fork of the Salmon River route is accessible due to snow levels. These routes lead to the community of Yellow Pine, then to the Stibnite Mining District along 12 miles of the East Fork Road. Driving time from McCall to the project site is approximately three hours depending on route taken. Project Area showing National Forests, wilderness boundaries and mine location. 4 than 1,500 people were working at the site. From 1941 to 1945 Stibnite mined and milled more tungsten and antimony than any other mine in the United States. During this wartime period, Stibnite produced 40 percent of the nation's domestic supply of tungsten and 90 percent of its antimony. Following the closing of the mine in the mid- 1950s, additional mining occurred on small and large scale from the 1970s through the Stibnite Mining District in the late 1940s. late 1990s. Stibnite Mining District Remnants of previous mining activities include the Bradley tailings (main deposition History area), smelter process area and wastes, The Stibnite area had been mined prior to the process ponds, five heap-leach pads, and establishment of the Forest Service. The District is two open mine pits. Past mining activities one of the most historic mining districts in all of Idaho. have deposited metals, spent and The site is rich with minerals, including gold, silver, neutralized ore, waste rock, and mine antimony and tungsten. Over the last hundred years, tailings over half of the site. Contaminants it has been home to thousands of miners, operated by associated with mining operations include several mining companies and was critical to the U.S. heavy metals and cyanide in area soil, war effort in the 1940s and 1950s. Mining activity groundwater, seeps and sediments. stopped at the site in 1997. In 1991, a release of arsenic was discovered Miners first came to Stibnite during Idaho’s gold rush due to an analysis of steelhead trout taken days in 1899. Over the next few years, the number of from the East Fork of the South Fork miners at the site continued to grow and several Salmon River was discovered. The site operators, including United Mercury Mining Company includes a number of waste source areas and Bradley Mining Company, started working in the resulting from mining along Meadow Creek area. In 1938, miners started focusing their efforts on and the East Fork of the South Fork of the the Yellow Pine Pit, where they were able to extract Salmon River. large quantities of gold from this area of the site. These operations at the pit blocked fish passage and to this day, fish in the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River cannot swim upstream past the site. During World War II, antimony became a mineral critical to the war effort as it was used to create ammunition. Stibnite contained such large quantities of antimony that individuals were able to serve their country by working at the site. At one point, more Stibnite housing in the 1940s. 5 Exploration on the Payette National Forest: Who is Midas Gold Beginning in 2007, Niagara Resources began (Text provided acquiring, through purchase from prior owners or by Midas Gold by staking on its own behalf, mining claims Idaho) throughout the District. Niagara Resources later sold the mineral rights to Midas Gold, Inc. Midas Gold Explorations were initiated in 2009 as a precursor Idaho is a to the Golden Meadows Exploration project. company Work included construction of several temporary based in Idaho with roughly 30 employees. The roads to access drill sites, as well as drill pad company developed and submitted the Plan of construction and subsequent drilling on both Restoration and Operations for the Stibnite Gold National Forest System lands and private lands. Project in 2016. Midas Gold Idaho has offices in Donnelly, Cascade, Stibnite and Boise. The team of For the activities on NFS lands, a Notice of Intent experts at Midas Gold Idaho are committed to and subsequent Plans of Operations were seeing the Stibnite Gold Project restore the site and submitted during 2010, 2011, and winter 2011- bring economic opportunity to surrounding 2012. The required reclamation bonds were communities. Midas Gold Idaho is overseen by a posted. In late 2011, a Plan of Operations was seven-member board comprised of a majority of submitted for a multi-year exploration drilling independent industry experts and citizens from program. An Environmental Assessment (EA) Idaho. was conducted and a FONSI and a Decision Notice (DN) was signed in 2013. Objections to The parent company, Midas Gold Corp., is a publicly the DN required a new EA to be conducted and traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, released in 2014. The final DN was signed in based in Vancouver, Canada. The four employees January 2016, and Midas Gold conducted their of Midas Gold Corp. focus on finance and investor exploration. relations. STIBNITE MINING In SeptemberDISTRICT 2016, Midas BOOM Gold Submitted their Recently, Barrick Gold purchased shares totaling Plan of Operations (referred to as the Plan of 19.9% of the currently issued shares.