Published on November 21, 2017
Mining practices today are vastly different from what they were a hundred years ago. Miners used to use picks and shovels to search for gold. They traveled to the Stibnite Gold Project site on foot, by horse or dogsled. And for many, many years, there were no rules on how to protect the environment. Today, things are very different.
Recently, we were able to teach fourth graders from Donnelly Elementary School about the evolution of mining.
Midas Gold is a modern mining company. Before we can begin any mining at the Stibnite Gold Project site today, we must meet strict permitting regulations, prove we have a plan to protect and restore the environment and ensure all of the money needed to carry out reclamation is fully set aside. Mining techniques have also advanced significantly. Instead of using picks and shovels, we can use machines and chemical processes to safely and efficiently extract the gold from rocks.
These advances in technology will allow us to re-mine the Stibnite Gold Project site and remove minerals that were impossible to get to in the past. It will also provide a reason and the funds to restore the area – something that never fully occurred in the past.
As part of trying to permit our site, Midas Gold has done a lot of exploration work. We took students into our rock room to show them samples of ore from the site and other minerals we’ve found. Then we gave the students a hands-on lesson in mapping and taught them how we use maps to plot mineral deposits at site.
This lesson was for students in elementary school but we’ve worked with elementary school classes all the way to high school from Cascade to McCall. We love partnering with the schools in Valley County and bringing science to life for students.
