by Michael Howell
Bitterroot National Forest officials received a draft Plan of Operation from US Critical Materials for exploratory mining on its Sheep Creek mining claims up the West Fork of the Bitterroot River in late December 2025. The Forest Service published the draft plan and began the process of determining if the application for a permit was complete and determining the level of analysis it would require. Recently, following closed door discussions of deficiencies in the application with the company, West Fork District Ranger Dan Pliley stated that the company requested a pause in the agency’s review process while it makes changes to the draft plan.
“They have not withdrawn their application,” said Pliley. “We have simply paused in our review process while they make some revisions to the draft plans. The public will be notified when any revisions are submitted, and we will make them public just as we did the original submission.”
The project has been placed on the federal Permitting Council’s FAST-41 Transparency list and a scheduled timeline has been published on the FAST-41 Dashboard, https://www.permits.performance.gov/permitting-project/fast-41-transparency-projects/sheep-creek-project.
The Plan of Operation schedule on the dashboard currently shows an expected date for submittal of a complete initial Plan of Operation from the applicant by March 2, 2026. An acceptance of the complete initial Plan of Operation by the Forest Service is expected by March 23, 2026. Submission of a final Plan of Operation and financial assurance from the applicant is expected by May 3, 2027, followed by approval from the Forest Service of the Final Plan by May 21, 2027.
In the meantime, on February 3, 2026, US Critical Materials Corp.’s partner in the Sheep Creek Mine, US Critical Metals Corp. located in Vancouver, Canada, announced that it had sold its Rights to Equity, Joint Venture Interest and Future Participation Rights in the Sheep Creek Project.
US Critical Metals Corp., through its wholly owned Nevada subsidiary US Energy Metals Corp., first joined with US Critical Materials Corp. in the joint venture at Sheep Creek on January 25, 2022, forming a fourth company, US Rare Elements Corp. (USRE). US Critical Metals and US Critical Materials were each to have two members on the USRE board of directors and have equal voting rights during a three-phase buy-in option.
It was agreed at the time that US Critical Metals would invest into USRE $300,000 within five days and another $1.5 million within the next 16 months in exchange for 25% equity interest in USRE with the right to acquire up to a 50% equity interest in the new company which would be assigned a 100% interest in the properties by US Critical Materials Corp. Along with it came the option to earn an additional 25% interest for an aggregate total of 75% equity interest in USRE.
But two days after signing the contract, on January 27, 2022, it was announced on EINPresswire in Salt Lake City that US Critical Metals had agreed to invest $10 million into USRE whose mining rights were still owned by US Critical Materials Corp.
Rather than continue to increase its equity in the business in the planned phases, however, US Critical Metals has decided to pull back. In the new agreement announced on Feb. 3, 2026, US Critical Metals sold all its rights under the exploration, option and shareholder agreement back to US Critical Materials for $1.5 million; $500,000 at closing, $500,000 within six months or less and 500,000 shares common stock of US Critical Materials Corp.
In the announcement, US Critical Metals claimed that the new deal “strengthens its balance sheet through non-dilutive financing to advance its lithium assets.” It also “enables the company to prioritize projects where it maintains majority ownership and operational control, including but not limited to, the company’s McDermitt East Lithium Project.”
“This transaction delivers meaningful non-dilutive capital to [US Critical Metals] while allowing both companies to pursue their priorities,” stated Darren Collins, CEO of US Critical Metals. “The 500,000-share position [in US Critical Materials] ensures that the Company continues to benefit from progress at Sheep Creek. As a shareholder of Materials, we wish Materials success in all future endeavors.”
Although the Sheep Creek project remains on the FAST-41 Transparency list, the County Commissioners and Representative David Bedey (HD 86) are calling for its removal from the list. Over 700 members of the public attended the only public meeting to date to consider the mining proposal last December and several dozen citizens spoke unanimously in favor of removing the project from the FAST-41 Transparency list and most spoke in strong opposition to the mine, period. Only two people, both representatives of the company, spoke in favor of the company’s proposal.
The Plan of Operation submitted to the Forest Service just two weeks after that meeting differs significantly from what was presented to the public and to the County Commissioners at the meeting.
Official public correspondence in response to the company’s Plan of Operation currently under review by the Forest Service was recently released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted last October by Friends of the Bitterroot. The correspondence also demonstrates strong opposition to the mine. Most of the comments involve issues about protecting wildlands, water and wildlife, as well as the lack of credibility of USCM. Out of close to 60 submissions only one spoke in favor of the plan. One submission raising significant concerns about the plan was signed by 21 different local, state and national non-profit conservation organizations.
Larry Campbell of Friends of the Bitterroot said that his organization has been concerned about expedited permitting of the Sheep Creek Mine long before it was placed on the FAST-41 Transparency list.
Realizing the public process could happen rapidly, he said, FOB began encouraging the public to submit “pre-scoping comments” to make sure concerns would be on record even before being officially invited by the Forest Service to comment. They subsequently submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all information related to the project in October of 2025. The agency’s response was received last week on February 4, 2026.
The pre-scoping comments so far submitted by the public were included in the agency’s response to the FOIA. It contained some communications with the company, mainly about arranging site visits by company consultants, but it did not contain any details about the discussions the Forest Service has been conducting with the company about its plan. Campbell said that allowing the public to be privy to the discussions and see what deficiencies had been identified could help the public prepare for what promises to be a speeded up public review process.
It does state on the Bitterroot National Forest website that the Forest Service values public participation and communications from the public regarding this project, including commenters’ names and contact information, will become part of the public record and that comments, including anonymous comments, will be accepted at any time; the Reading Room on the website remains empty.
“Now, with FAST-41 Transparency designation the mine permitting is being fast tracked, but the public is still getting slow walked,” said Campbell. “While US Critical Materials and the Forest Service are meeting behind closed doors discussing the Company’s mining plan, the public still hasn’t been informed about the discussions or been invited to offer comments. Although they released information about comments received to date to us, they have not made them available to the general public. This is not transparency. We would like to see a Sheep Creek mine project webpage that facilitates informing the public in a timely way so that no further FOIA’s would be required.”
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