A deliberate open-pit cyanide leach gold mine in Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains would jeopardize public well being and clear water, hurt endangered species, violate Indigenous treaty rights, and completely scar hundreds of acres of public land within the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River, a coalition of native and nationwide conservation teams stated.
In comments submitted Monday to the U.S. Forest Service, the teams urged the Service to reject the proposed Stibnite Gold Undertaking, which might resume mining actions within the Stibnite Mining District within the Payette Nationwide Forest. As an alternative, the teams stated, officers ought to speed up clean-up efforts on the website, an eligible Superfund site polluted from many years of historic cyanide leach gold mining and milling.
The mining firm, Perpetua Sources, desires to double the scale of the historic mine website to three,265 acres and excavate three open-pit mines. The proposed Yellow Pine pit would prolong greater than 700 ft beneath the East Fork South Fork Salmon River, requiring the river to be rerouted via a concrete tunnel throughout mining actions till the pit is ultimately backfilled with mine waste.
LINK (through Heart For Organic Variety)
