Is a gold mine coming to eastern Idaho? Forest Service evaluating local project.
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KILGORE There is a long history of digging up gold in Idaho.
Idaho’s deep calderas have opened the Gem State up to not only the feverish pioneer rush to pan for the gold in the 1800s, but continue to fuel modern-day speculators looking to mine the precious metal.
Canadian-based company, Excellon Resources, and its U.S. subsidiary, Otis Capital USA Corporation, has its eye on about 22 acres of forest land in the Dubois Ranger District in Clark County, about 80 miles north of Idaho Falls located in the heart of the Greater Yellowstone region. The company believes the region holds enough gold to operate an eventual open-pit mine for three up to five years. More specifically, they’d like to build an open pit, heap leach, cyanide gold mine, which were outlawed in neighboring Montana in 1998 due to environmental concerns. This type of mining is legal in Idaho, but with strin
A Centennial Mountains gold exploration proposal that had been halted due to uncertainty about impacts to an imperiled native trout population is reemerging before the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.
Conservation groups raise alarm over proposed Kilgore mining operation
ICL
KILGORE, Idaho (KIFI)-The U.S. Forest Service has released a Draft Environmental Assessment for a gold exploration proposal in the Centennial Mountains near Kilgore. The 3-5 year exploration is on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, about 80 miles north of Idaho Falls.
The Idaho Conservation League (ICL) and Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) say the proposal from Excellon Resources, of Canada, is nearly identical to one the two groups challenged in federal court in early 2020. In that case, the judge ruled the Forest Service failed to evaluate the impact drilling operations would have on water quality and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The ruling held that exploration activities at Kilgore could not proceed until the Forest Service addressed those issues.