No plan of operation yet for Sheep Creek Mine

by Michael Howell

In a press release on May 2, the Bitterroot National Forest announced that it has received a Notice of Intent (NOI) to conduct mineral exploration from U.S. Critical Materials (USCM) within their registered lode claims in the Sheep Creek location on the West Fork Ranger District for the 2024 field season. Although the company announced in previous statements that it expected to submit a plan of operations for exploratory drilling in April of 2024, instead the current NOI is a continuation of work that was proposed in their previous NOIs from 2022 and 2023. One notable difference in the 2024 NOI, however, is that the Canadian based company U.S. Critical Metals has pulled out of the project but retains a 12% stake in “American owned” U.S. Critical Materials, according to Executive Chairman Ed Cowle. Based on the current submission, West Fork District Ranger Dan Pliley has determined that a plan of operations is not required at this time. A copy of the 2024 NOI is posted on the Sheep Creek project website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/bitterroot/?project=65203.

Planned exploration activities include collecting soil samples at widely spaced intervals throughout the property to be analyzed for multiple elements including rare earths and other critical metals. Each sample will consist of up to 2 lbs. of soil and small rock chips collected with a shovel from an approximate 12-inch depth.

Stream sediment sampling is also planned, in which widely spaced samples of sand-size rock will be collected in active stream beds and analyzed for multiple elements including rare earths and other critical metals. Each sample will consist of about 2 lbs. of material.

Mineralized rock will be sampled from float, outcrops, and from areas with existing exploration trenches developed in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Rock chip samples average about 5 lbs. each and will be analyzed for multiple elements including rare earths and other critical metals.

Pick and shovel work is proposed to improve access to an historic adit (a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine) on the property to provide safe ingress for geologic mapping and sampling. The adit portal will be gated at completion to restrict unauthorized access. Samples collected from the adit will be analyzed for multiple elements including rare earths and other critical metals.

Geophysical surveys over the property are also planned in which magnetic, radiometric, and gravity methods will be conducted with hand-held instruments. According to the NOI, there will be no surface disturbance associated with these surveys.

A helicopter or drone will also be utilized to collect geophysical data over the property. Data collected could include magnetic and radiometric readings and there will be no surface disturbance associated with the survey. Details regarding flight plans including the area to be evaluated, timing of the survey, specific equipment to be used, flight elevation, and the duration of the survey will be relayed to and coordinated with the West Fork Ranger District.

Work was expected to begin on May 1, 2024. Close-out is expected to be on or before October 26, 2024. In a projection of project milestones on the Forest Service’s website, it is estimated that scoping for the project could begin by January 2025 with a decision made by January 2026 and implementation beginning by January 2027.

Ed Cowle, Executive Chairman at USCM, said, “We realized that we were going to need a lot of environmental experts and they really can’t be on the property until the snow melts. Until that happens, we can’t really get out there and do the kind of Environmental Assessment that needs to be done.” 

He said, “We realized we had gotten people’s attention and we’ve got to go slow and try to be as open and transparent as possible and put a document together that either says this makes sense or this doesn’t make sense.” He said he believed a plan might be submitted by mid to late summer.

Cowle went on to say he had heard things that were being said at local meetings and the company was making plans to engage people locally. “We are not looking to spoil anybody’s recreation,” said Cowle. “We aren’t looking to have acids and bad things going into the river. These things being said are really so far off base. We are going to present things from our point of view, and I think people will be pleased.”

He said that only one third of the property had been explored and that they would spend the summer exploring the other two-thirds. 

“We would rather go slow and do it the right way and also work on getting local support and show the benefits and show that the bad things being said have been overblown so much,” said Cowle. “So that’s it – we are just not ready to file. We are way behind schedule but that’s purposeful. We will have tours this summer and show some of the technology we plan to use.”

“It’s also very expensive to drill,” said Cowle, “and we want to be sure what’s underneath. Sometimes what’s underneath doesn’t match what’s on the surface.”

Cowle said that if they are successful in getting an exploratory permit there would probably be two years of drilling and then they would look for a larger company to actually file a mining permit and do the mining. 

“A lot of this is in the future but you don’t get to the future without starting sometime,” said Cowle.

Last February, Friends of the Bitterroot, the Center for Biological Diversity, Wild Earth Guardians, and 16 other conservation and environmental organizations in the state sent a letter to the Bitterroot National Forest urging them not to invoke a “categorical exclusion” to any submission of a plan of operation for the mine, and instead to take “a good hard look” at any proposal and allow for public participation in the process. One new organization, Bitterroot Clean Water Alliance (BCWA), was formed specifically in opposition to the mine and has placed large billboards along Highway 93 and many small “Don’t Pollute the Root” signs all over the county. Opposition to the mine has been steadily growing. A petition against the mine posted on Change.org has gathered 911 signatures.

Dr. Philip Ramsey, one of the founders of BCWA, earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Montana in 2006 for studies of how heavy metal contamination affects rivers and has studied specifically the massive Superfund clean-up of the Clark Fork River. Ramsey said, “We are not against mining. We are just against this sort of mining in this kind of place.”

Conservation groups are concerned about the potential impact to threatened and endangered species and other wildlife. The upper West Fork of the Bitterroot is home to threatened wolverine, lynx, bull trout, and white bark pine. A large portion of the claim block is in the Allen Mountain Roadless Area, raising concerns about fragmentation of a vital wildlife corridor. The mining process also requires large amounts of water and sits atop a basin already closed to new surface water rights due to over-appropriation. Concerns have also been expressed over potential radioactive contamination from the tailings as well as the possibility that the actinolite deposits in the area may contain asbestos.   Research by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy has shown that regional ecosystems can be significantly altered by the presence of mines, both physically and chemically and states specifically, “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. Rare Earth Element (REE) mine tailings contain processing chemicals, salts, and radioactive materials. Tailings are particularly problematic in REE mining, because of the significant waste-to-yield ratio.”

A report published in the Harvard International Review discussing the two primary methods for REE mining notes that, “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.”

While China’s domination of the REE market has fueled worldwide concern and a race by governments around the globe to instigate and accelerate their own mining and production capacity, an analysis published in Forbes in 2023 notes that they are in China’s control presently only because the mining and refinement of these metals is environmentally destructive, something that until recently China cared less about than do the developed nations of the West.

According to the Bitterroot National Forest press release, by law, processing locatable minerals plans is nondiscretionary for the Forest Service. Miners have possessory rights associated with mining claims which authorizes the miner the right to use the surface for mining purposes including use and occupancy necessary for processing. All miners are subject to U.S. Forest Service Mining Regulations 36 CFR 228 Subpart A including requirements to submit a plan of operations and post a reclamation bond. For more information, contact Dan Pliley, West Fork District Ranger, at (406) 821-3269. Or go to www.facebook.com/DiscoverBitterrootNF.