Midas Gold reaches cleanup agreement for Stibnite

Midas Gold Corporation of Vancouver, B.C., has forged an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. National Forest Service on a three-phase plan to remediate the abandoned Stibnite mine in Valley County. The firm announced the agreement on Jan. 15.

The mining firm will carry out the first phase of its remediation plan regardless of the status of its current permit application process to reopen the Stibnite mine. The permitting process must follow the procedures set out in the National Environmental Policy Act. The second and third phases are contingent on Midas successfully gaining the permits to mine the property.

“For decades, ground and surface water at Stibnite have suffered from elevated levels of arsenic and antimony,” Laurel Sayer, CEO of Midas Gold, stated in the press release about the agreement. “Yet, because the problems stem from historic mining activity, there are no responsible parties left to address the issues at hand. While we did not cause the problems impacting water quality today, we have always been clear on our intentions to be a part of the solution. We know redevelopment of the Stibnite Mining District for mining activity must include restoration of legacy features. So, when we saw the need to address sources of water contamination more quickly at Stibnite, we knew we had to offer our help.”

Because the agreement represents a significant milestone in its progression toward opening the mine, Midas Gold will now move forward with some major business-structure changes. The company officially announced that it will now redomicile itself as a publicly traded business incorporated in the United States. It will seek to trade its shares on the NASDAQ exchange. Midas will also move its headquarters to Boise.

In drafting the agreement, the EPA also consulted with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Nez Perce Tribe and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. The remediation will move forward under the terms and conditions for remediation of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act, which is nicknamed as the Superfund Act.

According to EPA’s online database of remediation sites, Stibnite is only a proposed site for inclusion on the Superfund National Priorities List. Regardless, the parties to the agreement concurred on CERCLA as the appropriate clean-up standard rather than the parallel Resource Conservation & Recovery Act. The EPA’s RCRA standard is more appropriate for permitted waste generators like industrial plants, while CERCLA with its upfront remedial investigation and feasibility study structure is better geared toward abandoned waste sites like old mines.

An important feature of the agreement is the acknowledgement that Midas Gold has no liability under CERCLA for the existing contamination at the Stibnite site from previous mining activities. The Midas remedial cleanup of the tailings and water contamination is a goodwill gesture by the firm and entirely voluntary.

“Water quality in the Stibnite Mining District has been a known problem for decades,” Willie Sullivan, a Yellow Pine resident quoted in the agreement announcement. Sullivan is also a board member of the Yellow Pine Water Users Association. He added: “As the closest community to the site, I can tell you that cleanup is long overdue. This agreement between the EPA and Midas Gold is the first meaningful step toward real improvements in water quality conditions for the East Fork South Fork Salmon River and downstream communities like Yellow Pine. We have seen Midas Gold’s commitment to doing business the right way and their willingness to help with clean up now tells me they are the right partner for this effort.”

According to EPA documents, past mining operations at Stibnite included underground, placer and open pit mining methods. The site was previously mined beginning in the early 1900s and concluding in the late 1990s. The property produced antimony, tungsten and gold. Mining and extraction activities left arsenic, antimony, and cyanide wastes in soils, tailings, groundwater and surface waters. A creek and a fork of the Salmon River both cross the site. Both have has from suffered heavy metals contamination. Mine drainage and seeps on the site are also contaminated.

Phase one of the voluntary remediation includes the removal of 325,000 tons of historical mine wastes near the river. Midas Gold will also create three water diversions designed to protect surface water from contamination on the site. Additional activities will incorporate the examination of five existing adits, a biological assessment, a Section 404 Clean Water Act evaluation and a cultural resources study in addition to a characterization study to guide phase two and three of the clean-up. If Midas does not succeed in obtaining its permits to mine the site, its voluntary clean-up will end with phase one.

The voluntary cleanup agreement is unrelated to the progress of the Clean Water Act lawsuit brought against Midas Gold by the Nez Perce Tribe. Regarding the lawsuit, Midas stated on its website that: “The federal judge overseeing the case invited the company to renew its previous motion to stay the litigation when a CERCLA order was ‘imminent.’ What we do know is that the (cleanup agreement) will allow for the near-term removal of sources that are causing water contamination in areas addressed by the suit. We hope that the agreement will provide an opportunity to reach resolution with the Tribe as we would prefer to be out of the courtroom and focused on doing good work on the ground that can benefit all parties.

“It is important to point out the EPA and Midas Gold first started discussing the problems at site and the potential agreement well before a lawsuit over water quality was filed.”