Published on January 27, 2020
On January 27, six members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service expressing concern over Midas Gold’s non-federal representative status. You can view the letter here.
As we’ve stated before, our company’s status as a non-federal representative is not unusual and is common practice. Below is a statement from Midas Gold Idaho CEO, Laurel Sayer, on today’s letter.
“The letter is inaccurate and misleading. The process evaluating our project is collaborative, transparent, based in science and completely in the hands of the regulatory agencies. Companies have been granted non-federal representative status for over thirty years, across six presidential administrations. Midas Gold’s non-federal representative status is not new or unusual and ultimately has already and will continue to increase collaboration. But to be clear, all analysis and decision-making remains entirely in the hands of the regulators.
The Stibnite Gold Project is an opportunity to fund environmental restoration for a historic mining district in desperate need of repair. Midas Gold has the opportunity to reconnect fish to their native spawning grounds and remove millions of tons of historic tailings left in the watershed. Our plan is designed to use modern, responsible mining to bring economic opportunity to the region and provide the necessary funding and resources to restore the abandoned mining site. We are the only ones with a plan to fix the problems facing the site and the only ones prepared to take responsibility for the site.
As a company, we used our non-federal representative status to advocate to include Idaho’s Tribes, five federal agencies and three state agencies early on in the review of the potential impacts our project may have on endangered species. We believe our efforts will lead to a more comprehensive review of the Stibnite Gold Project and protections for the wildlife we all love.”
If you would like to learn more, please read our previous blog explaining our role as a non-federal representative and our briefing paper on the draft biological assessment and our non-federal representative status.
