HOW BIG IS THE FOOTPRINT OF THE STIBNITE GOLD PROJECT?

Published on July 12, 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.

How big will the Stibnite Gold Project actually be? This is a question we’ve seen come up a few times recently, so we wanted to give you the facts. In this week’s Ask Midas, I’m taking a deeper dive into our project footprint and our efforts to minimize the impact of the Stibnite Gold Project.

WHAT IS THE FOOTPRINT OF THE STIBNITE GOLD PROJECT?

The Stibnite Gold Project is located on a combination of private and public land just outside of Yellow Pine known as the Historic Stibnite Mining District, an area that has seen mining activity for more than a century. With such extensive mining activity, the area is subject to many legacy mining impacts.  When we rediscovered the area, we saw it as an opportunity to develop a mining project that could not only build a business but could also correct the damage that was left behind from decades of mining activity in times when there were little to no regulations.  By focusing on restoration first in our new project, it is important to us that we keep our footprint limited to areas with existing disturbance, as much as possible, and prioritize restoration activities during operations. These decisions will allow us to leave the area better than we found it.

Midas Gold’s claim package includes 29,827 acres of private and public land but the project footprint is only 1,991 acres – just 7 percent of the total package. We worked hard to contain as much of the project as possible within areas previously disturbed by mining or mining-related activity, as a result, 42 percent of the project footprint is on land that has already been disturbed. By locating facilities on previously disturbed ground, using existing roads and avoiding riparian areas, the other 93 percent of land held by Midas Gold will not be affected by the proposed project.  Additionally, 90 percent of the mineral reserves Midas Gold plans on mining are on Midas Gold’s private land.  Even in disturbed areas, we plan to replace and enhance wetlands and stream channels, reconnect the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River to its headwaters for the first time since the 1930s and reforest burned areas.

Redeveloping the Stibnite Gold Project site will require us to build quite a bit of new infrastructure at the site. Facilities will include offices, employee housing, workshops, warehouses, ore processing facilities and other mining and storage facilities. We also will make improvements to the power supply system and create infrastructure in order to have clean drinking water and safely dispose of sewage.  All of these facilities will be built in areas where buildings from previous miners once stood. And, the buildings will be carefully removed when our work is done so the land can be fully reclaimed.

As we move forward with our project, we will continue to look for practical ways to minimize the footprint of our project. It is incredibly important to our team that, as much as possible, we keep our work out of areas that have been left untouched and focus our efforts on areas that have already been heavily mined.