An Idaho Mining Proposal Forces the US Government to Choose Between Critical Minerals and Indigenous Treaties

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale, May 1, 2023

Its scales glisten through the crystal water, refracting the Idaho sunlight. It writhes upstream through one set of rapids, then the next, until it arrives finally at a calm pool where it lets itself drift in a circle, like an exhausted sprinter finding reprieve in the shade.

The pool, though, is not the reprieve for which the Chinook Salmon hoped. It reaches an impassable ascent, a cascade of water sloshing down the side of old mining rubble, the once-pristine creek falling hundreds of feet to the bottom of the pit where the fish remains.

Here, the salmon must end its journey, unable to get to the upper reaches of the East Fork South Fork Salmon River, its path blocked by the open pit of the historic Stibnite Mine. 

This is nothing new for the salmon of the East Fork South Fork. Mining started at Stibnite over 80 years ago, continually threatening these fish — an animal at the center of the Nez Perce belief system — and the rights of the Nez Perce nation to hunt and gather on treaty-reserved lands.

The remnants of the mine survive 80 years later, as does a scarred landscape, an arsenic-polluted river and a demolished ecosystem.

A view of the open pit at the Stibnite Mine. Photo by Jan Boles, 1964.

Today, a new mining company stands on the doorstep. Perpetua Resources, formerly Midas Gold Corp., proposed in 2011 The Stibnite Gold Project. With Forest Service approval, they would mine the abandoned site for gold as well as antimony, a mineral deemed critical by the U.S. government, as it is used in military weaponry and to create clean energy. During the process, Perpetua said they would restore the historically demolished area using the profit from the mine.

But, environmental advocates, former members of the Forest Service and the Nez Perce nation banded together against Perpetua, refusing to accept the implications of a reopened site in an ongoing bureaucratic battle reaching its final phases — one that exposes a national attitude that prioritizes resources over indigenous rights and environmental preservation.

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John Robison, Public Lands Director of the Idaho Conservation League, fears the project is not what Perpetual Resources branded it to be.

“What we’ve seen here, is it’s basically an old school mining project with some really photogenic greenwashing on it,” said Robison.

The project, though, would revive the Stibnite Mine as the U.S.’s only domestic source of antimony, increasing the value of the company’s plan as the Department of Defense strives to find a domestic source of the critical mineral to aid the war in Ukraine, and as the U.S. shifts towards clean energy production.

Data collected from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023

Data collected from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023

A domestic source of antimony would also reduce U.S. reliance on antimony imports from China and Russia, two of the leading exporters of the critical mineral, easing federal dependence on supply chains from the two superpowers.

Data collected from USGS Mineral Commodities Summaries 2023

Data collected from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2023

The federal focus on the antimony supply chains arrives as Biden promises to increase communication with indigenous nations, forcing him to choose between supporting treaty rights and focusing on mining needed to aid national defense and clean energy production.

Biden issued a Presidential Memorandum prompting federal agencies to engage in, “regular, meaningful, and robust consultation with tribal officials in the development of Federal policies that have Tribal implications,” on Nov. 30, 2022.

But the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), a department under Biden’s supervision, gave Perpetua Resources a critical minerals award of $24.8 million using funding from the Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022, which provides support for Ukrainian people and global democracy. 

The DoD awarded Perpetua the funds to do research necessary to complete a Final Environmental Impact Statement and other permits, as per the guidelines of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) through 2024, said Jeffery Jurgensen, DoD Spokesperson.

Jurgensen said antimony (antimony trisulfide) is critical for basic warfighting abilities in all branches of the military and is used in the primers for small and medium caliber munitions.

“Perpetua Resources’ mining efforts will be a major asset as no marketable stibnite (the mineral name for antimony trisulfide) was mined in the United States in 2022 [USGS Annual Publication on Antimony, 2023],” Jurgensen wrote in an email regarding Perpetua’s plan to mine antimony. 

Perpetua also signed an agreement in Aug, 2021 with Ambri Inc. battery company to provide them with antimony if the proposed mining project gets approved. Antimony is a fundamental compound in Ambri’s Liquid Metal Battery technology, a battery system used to store excess energy from wind and solar power. 

Though Ambri is not a government agency, their agreement with Perpetua falls in line with Biden’s pledge to invest in the domestic clean energy sector and reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, as stated in the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law on Aug., 2022.

The proposed project at Stibnite revives a longstanding conflict between the General Mining Law of 1872, an Act by the U.S. government providing mines with first rights to public land usage, and the Nez Peace Treaty of 1855, an agreement between the US government and the Nez Perce Tribe that promised them rights to hunting and fishing in Idaho mountains. 

The Forest Service wrote in the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS), published in Oct., 2022, the Nez Perce would lose access to their off-reservation rights to hunt, gather, pasture and fish in their usual and accustomed places for the duration of the 20-year project.

The Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee issued a letter to the Forest Service in response to the SDEIS.

“These rights do not simply impose responsibility on the United States. For the Nimíipuu [Nez Perce], these rights were and are inextricably linked to, and a guarantee of, our ability to preserve our culture and identity,” they write.

But the Forest Service chose to uphold the General Mining Law of 1872, proposing four Forest Plan amendments in favor of Perpetua Resources. These proposed changes alter the Plan, created to guide resource-management activities on public lands, giving Perpetua Resources freedom to make major changes to the natural landscape in the area, including more than doubling the current mining footprint, according to the SDEIS.

Mckensie Lyon, Vice President of External Affairs for Perpetua Resources, said, though, Perpetua will use the profit from the mine to repair the historically devastated site.

“The designing purpose of this project,” said Lyon, “Was that you could go back to an abandoned mine site, and leave it better than it is today through mining.”

Lyon said they are focused on increasing fish habitat, improving water quality and reducing sedimentation at the site as they mine.

She added they plan to build a fish passageway so Bullhead Trout, Steelhead Trout, Chinook Salmon and Cutthroat Trout could avoid the Yellow Pine mining pit, which was first established during WWII and prevents these species from migrating through 20 miles of the East Fork South Fork Salmon River headwaters.

By year seven of their mining operations, Perpetua would backfill the pit and restore the East Fork South Fork to a flow that mimics natural conditions, said Lyon.

“So, a big positive impact for the entire area,” she said.

Robison thinks Perpetua will not live up to their promise to improve the area around the mine.

“It’s a fantastic vision that looks really good from my perspective, until you read the fine print,” said Robison.

Despite Perpetua’s claims that the new mine would reverse damage to fish habitat, their plan suggests removing vegetation lining the streams at the mining site, which would cause a rise in water temperatures by up to 6.8 degrees C (12 degrees F) for 100 years, damaging the environment for the four endangered species of fish, according to the SDEIS.

“It’s kind of like somebody saying, ‘hey, we’re going to go ahead and demolish your house. We’ll build you a new house and it’ll be great.’ but they don’t say that, ‘oh yeah, and then for four months in the summer, it’s going to be uninhabitable because there’s no air conditioning.’ And so, it’s really a false promise there,” said Robison.

Though Perpetua Resources announced in 2022 they expect to mine enough antimony to cover close to 35 % of U.S. consumption in the first six years of mining, Robison thinks Perpetua’s environmental campaign could be more a marketing scheme than anything else.

He added fisheries experts don’t support Perpetua’s restorative proposal, despite their promise to increase fish habitat.

“So there's a disconnect or a gap scattered between, you know, what the mining company is promoting, and actually what the project will do,” said Robison. 

95% of the profit from the proposed project would come from the gold also embedded in the ground at the Stibnite site, according to Perpetua’s feasibility report. 

Sydney Anderson, Conservation Associate at Idaho Rivers United, is skeptical of Perpetua’s intentions for the mine.

 “With the plan they have, it’s not a restoration project. I mean, first and foremost this is a gold mine,” said Anderson.

Former Forest Service Fisheries Biologist and District Ranger Mary Faurot Patterson said mining operations, no matter the intent, make restoration efforts difficult. 

“When mining occurs, all vegetation is removed, mountains are turned into pits, and the ground is dug up and put somewhere else,” said Patterson.

She added that Perpetua will have a difficult time restoring vegetation around the streams to decrease water temperatures, as they promised they would do in their plan to leave the site after their proposed two decades of mining.

“I worked with that restoration phase back in the 2000s to try to find the right mix of soil type fertilizers, organic material, and then seeds and plants that will grow on top of these places,” said Patterson, speaking about a restoration effort she took part in at the Stibnite site. “And it took years for us to figure out just to get ground cover, much less trees growing on some of this area.”

Mayor Julie Good of New Meadows, an Idaho town near the mine, serves on the Advisory Council to Perpetua’s proposed mining project. She and her colleagues monitor the proposal and engage in open conversations with Perpetua about the project. 

Good said Perpetua’s willingness to discuss the project with the communities in the area is rare for a mining company.

“Perpetua the ones that are saying, ‘Okay, let's do this.’ So I don't know that mining companies always do that.”

But, Fred Coriell, a board member on the Save the South Fork Salmon (SSF) advocacy group, said the Advisory Board to the Stibnite Gold Project may not have much influence on Perpetua’s decision making process.

Almost finished with his law degree, Coriell serves SSF as a legal expert as they fight Perpetua’s mining claims.

He said Perpetua Resources also awards grants to local organizations through the Stibnite Foundation, which they helped create. 

Julie Good and other local government officials serve as members of both the Advisory Council and the Stibnite Foundation, prompting Coriell to say he believes Perpetua Resources uses the foundation to keep local officials on their side.

“We felt there was too close a connection with the local governments. This would have been fine had it been detached from the people we elect into office,” he said. “…to me it just kind of stinks.”

Long time Yellow Pine resident Deb Filler said mining for antimony at the Stibnite site is crucial as the country becomes more reliant on technology and as the car industry shifts toward electric batteries.

“I'm a huge proponent of mining. And you know, I would like to see people who are anti-mining give up their cell phones, their cars, since you can’t have either one without mining,” said Filler.

Good said some people in the project area support Perpetua’s proposal because it may foster economic growth.

“I believe there are people who are looking forward to it because of the increase in job possibilities,” said Good. “The wages that are going to be offered — also the potential of just bringing more commerce into the area.”

But Diana Bryant, ranch owner on Johnson Creek road half a mile Southwest of the Stibnite Mine, said Perpetua would have to use the road for the first three years of the mining operation.

She rents cabins at the ranch to recreators in the area and fears the mining traffic brought in by the company would affect her business.

“It will literally eliminate my business,” she said, regarding the first three years Perptua would need to use the road.

She said the proposal restricts the ability for recreational-related businesses to operate and for recreators to access the outdoors.

“After that it is going to be operational to the point where it eliminates about a quarter of the backcountry recreational area in valley county between the traffic and the actual mining operation,” she said. “And we’re a recreation county. The jobs and businesses are virtually all associated with recreation.” 

John Rygh, former member of the Forest Service, remembers when he first saw Perpetua’s proposal to reopen the mine.  

“The initial draft of the plan dropped on my desk, and I was like, it's time to retire,” said Rygh.

The Forest Service said they aim to release a Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed project at the end of this year and a final decision regarding the project in early 2024. Until then, they, and Biden, the Department of Defense, and the American public, must consider what — and who — they are willing to sacrifice to unearth critical minerals.