Published on January 3, 2018
Midas Gold Idaho wants to keep the community informed about the work we are doing at the Stibnite Gold Project site. The Ask Midas blog series gives the experts in our company a chance to answer some of the community’s most frequently asked questions and help clear up any misconceptions around the project.
As the director of public affairs for Midas Gold, I’m on the communication front lines for our company. Part of my job is to know the questions the community has and help make sure those get answered. That is why I am excited to help answer this week’s question:
Hasn’t Stibnite already been restored?
It is true that throughout the years, the mining industry and even at one point the U.S. Government, invested some money to help with reclamation efforts at Stibnite. However, those reclamation efforts were not enough. Today up at site, there is still arsenic in the water coming from improperly stored historical tailings and waste rock. Hundreds of tons of sediment are dumped into the river each year from Blowout Creek. Fish have been blocked from their native spawning grounds for almost 80 years. The area needs to be reforested after being destroyed by wildfires. And some of the wetlands in the region are on the verge of completely drying up as uncontrolled erosion drops the water table. With all the issues facing the site today, it is impossible to say the region has already been restored. There is a lot more to do and Midas Gold has set out a plan to do it in conjunction with redeveloping the site.
If you have a question you would like us to answer, please email it to [email protected].
