Open letter to Governor and legislators opposing mine

by Andy Roubik, President Bitterroot River Protection Association

The reasons to oppose the development of the proposed Sheep Creek Mine in the West Fork of the Bitterroot River are manifold.

It is well documented that Rare Earth Element mining has significant environmental and health impacts, including land and air pollution, severe erosion, biodiversity loss, and contamination of water resources with toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactive materials and in this particular case asbestos contamination is also a real possibility. These impacts pose risks to our community through respiratory illnesses, skin conditions, and exposure to carcinogens, while also damaging ecosystems and causing long-term land and water degradation on a massive scale. This is not something that should be FAST TRACKED. This is something that needs in-depth review with full public participation.

It has also been well documented that REE mining processes pose a serious threat to groundwater and to surface water. In this case that includes Sheep Creek and Johnson Creek, the West Fork of the Bitterroot River, the waters contained in Painted Rocks Reservoir and the mainstem of the Bitterroot River from Darby to Missoula 

According to the Harvard International Review, there are two primary methods for REE mining, both of which release toxic chemicals into the environment. Both methods produce mountains of toxic waste, with high risk of environmental and health hazards. For every ton of rare earth produced, the mining process yields 13kg of dust, 9,600-12,000 cubic meters of waste gas, 75 cubic meters of wastewater, and one ton of radioactive residue. This stems from the fact that rare earth element ores have metals that, when mixed with leaching pond chemicals, contaminate air, water, and soil. Most worrying is that rare earth ores are often laced with radioactive thorium and uranium, which result in especially detrimental health effects. Overall, for every ton of rare earth, 2,000 tons of toxic waste are produced. 

According to the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, regional ecosystems can be significantly altered by the presence of mines, both physically and chemically. Site preparation, access roads, and ancillary facilities lead to direct – and often absolute – destruction of the proximate environment, while pollution from mine processes and storage of residual tailings can lead to widespread chemical imbalances and toxic contamination.

US Critical Materials says don’t worry because the thorium content in the ore is low enough that no permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be required. However, this claim is based on a small number of hand-picked samples from a few sites on claims spread over 4,500 acres. This sampling in no way guarantees that a vein of ore particularly rich in thorium will not be uncovered in the mining process.

To top things off, it is well documented that a significant amount of the mineral actinolite is intimately associated with the minerals USCM would be targeting. Actinolite can be asbestiform in a class known as amphibole asbestos, which is even more toxic than the more usual type of asbestos. In 1960 it was first reported that Sheep Creek actinolite “forms masses of radiating fibers surrounding other crystals.” Tremolite, closely related to actinolite which has killed hundreds of people in and around Libby, is an amphibole asbestos. Dust containing amphibole asbestos can travel far and wide and is very difficult to ever clean up. Prevention is the only solution. Exploratory drilling is a dusty business.

US Critical Materials says they are working with an Idaho lab to develop an environmentally safe way to process and extract the REEs from the ore, but they have not said a word about an environmentally safe way to mine the ore.

Tailings ponds require complex management. Poor construction or catastrophic failure can lead to long-term and widespread environmental damage and contamination of surface or groundwater. The steep mountainsides in the Sheep Creek area and the severe winter conditions that blanket the mountainsides at that altitude make it a particularly precarious place to conduct such operations.

Large-scale mining activities like this also cause severe erosion, deforestation, and habitat destruction, disrupting ecosystems and leading to biodiversity loss. We know that endangered species use the area. It is known to serve as a migration route for Grizzly Bears, and Bull Trout occupy the upper reaches of the West Fork. 

These are all very real potential impacts. And if we look at what’s at stake, we are putting all of Ravalli County’s major economic drivers at risk. The agricultural industry and our tourism and recreation industry, two of the biggest revenue producers in the county, are being put at risk. They both depend upon a good and clean water supply. 

The Bitterroot River used to run dry in late summer. Through an incredible cooperative effort by both these industries, we have managed to keep water flowing in the river by carefully rationing and mutually sharing what water we can hold in Painted Rocks Reservoir. It is never enough for any of the parties involved, but better than nothing. These mines not only use a lot of water, the water they do return to the system is always contaminated to some degree.

Those are simply some of the risks posed to the valley’s economy. Add to this the hazard and wear and tear on our roadways and the subsequent maintenance costs of hauling heavy loads of ore from the mining site right through the entire valley to the nearest railroad station in Missoula. Will the mining company be sharing in any of these costs?

The benefits to the valley and to the state of Montana are virtually non-existent. It would turn Ravalli County into a “Sacrifice Zone” with a small portion of the revenues going to a small out-of-state company and the majority (75%) going to a Canadian company primarily owned (50.55%) by a foreign company registered in the Virgin Islands whose principal physical assets are based in Austria. This deal is a classic example of the kind of colonial development that has ravaged Africa for over a century and would basically turn Montana into a “third-world state” where the natural resources are ripped off for the benefit of foreign entities.

The truth is that sacrificing our pristine watersheds to new mining projects is not even necessary to meet the needs of our nation for REEs. There are proven and successful alternatives in Montana and elsewhere already in the works that would actually benefit our county, our state and the nation. And they could predictably meet our nation’s needs.

Two examples in Montana are the Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Extraction Demonstration project in Butte extracting REEs from the Berkely Pit https://montanafreepress.org/2024/04/10/montana-to-congress-berkeley-pit-a-unique-opportunity-for-rare-earth-elements/ 

and Montana Critical Metals (MCM) using breakthrough technologies to extract CMs and REEs from coal fly ash at Colstrip.

These projects and others like them across the nation can not only provide the critical minerals and REEs we need but at the same time actually help in cleaning up stockpiles of toxic waste materials currently stored at old and active mines across the state and the country.

There is no reason to develop the Sheep Creek mine and there is every reason not to. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that this project should not be “Fast Tracked.” If the project moves forward at all it absolutely requires in depth review of its potential impacts and full participation of the public in that process.  

Let’s not turn the Bitterroot valley into a “Sacrifice Zone” and Montana into a third-world state.