BILLINGS, Mont. — The U.S. Forest Service is considering a more stringent analysis of a mining proposal near Yellowstone National Park after receiving thousands of public comments on the 2,500-acre project, according to an agency spokeswoman.
British Columbia-based Lucky Minerals Inc. wants to search for gold on federal and private land around Emigrant Peak in south-central Montana.
The area about 20 miles south of the park border has a long history of mining and small-scale gold mining continues to occur.
More recently, Emigrant Peak and the surrounding area has become a destination for wilderness-lovers, with the nearby Chico Hot Springs Resort drawing large numbers of tourists bound for Yellowstone.
The mining proposal is currently undergoing a low-level review by the Custer Gallatin National Forest and state officials. That level of scrutiny could change after area residents and environmentalists voiced opposition and officials consider roughly 2,800 comments they’ve received on the application, forest spokeswoman Marna Daley said.
“We’ve received a lot of comments from folks wanting a higher level of environmental analysis, so we’ll be looking at those,” Daley said. The proposal before the agency, she added, “is not the full-on mining operations. This is purely exploring what minerals might be present.”
A decision on how the Forest Service will proceed is expected by early fall. If the agency decides to undertake the most comprehensive review, an environmental impact statement, that could take many months to complete.
Documents submitted by Lucky Minerals show the company would spend an estimated $2.5 million on its exploratory work. Additional permits — and $5 million more — would be spent to obtain information about the gold deposits that are needed before production-level mining could begin.
The “overall target is a multi-million ounce gold property with significant copper (and) silver byproducts,” according to a report prepared for the company in March.
Representatives of the company did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
Approval also is needed from the Montana Department of Environmental Protection.
Environmentalists said the company’s exploratory project is merely a prelude to a large mine that doesn’t belong in the area, and its application should be examined in that context.
“This isn’t any old proposal,” said Jenny Harbine with the environmental law firm Earthjustice in Bozeman. “What Lucky Minerals has put forward is a multi-year, aggressive exploration plan, and it can’t shield the environmental consequences that full plan from agency and public scrutiny by dividing it into small steps.”
