Published on March 11, 2019
Midas Gold is a proud sponsor of a Boise GreenBike hub in Camel’s Back Park. We’ve sponsored the hub for the last two years because we believe in promoting actions each one of us can take to help the planet, like riding a bike instead of driving. Additionally, we want to help our community understand minerals play an important part in cycling. From bicycles and helmets to cell phones with fitness aps, we all depend on products made from mined materials to help us enjoy the outdoors.
Recently, the Boise GreenBike hub we sponsor was vandalized with anti-Midas Gold graffiti and Idaho Rivers United petitioned Boise GreenBike staff to unilaterally terminate our contract. In case you are interested, here is the letter Idaho Rivers United sent to Boise GreenBike.
The vandalism and request from Idaho Rivers United to remove our sponsorship of Boise GreenBike has taken our team by surprise. Boise GreenBike is a service of Valley Regional Transit. The bikes and hubs were paid for by a federal grant but, to keep the program running, operational funds come from user fees, advertising, and sponsors like Midas Gold. On Boise GreenBike’s website, the organization writes, “We’ll grow as the community helps us grow.”We believe it is important to help Boise GreenBike grow.
We understand Idaho Rivers United is opposed to the mining industry. However, when it comes to encouraging alternative transportation and helping reduce air pollution and take care of our planet, we believe we can find some common ground. Just take a look at our sustainability report and you can see we support a lot of programs to help the communities we are in and the environment. When we heard of Idaho Rivers United concerns, we reached out to the group and offered to sit down to meet. Here is the letter we sent. We are still waiting to see if the group will take us up on our offer.
We plan to continue supporting Boise GreenBike through our sponsorship agreement. In fact, we are updating the hub at Camel’s Back Park to highlight the connection between mining and biking. It is easy to forget how important minerals are in our daily lives. The new station design will help to educate Boise Greenbike users on what minerals are important to biking. For example, did you know bike frames are made from aluminum, steel, molybdenum, magnesium, graphite, titanium or scandium alloys combined with other elements? It is also interesting to note, bicycle manufacturers in the United States are currently dependent on foreign sources of graphite and scandium to build bikes because we important 100 percent of these minerals.
We want to be good stewards of our planet. While we have big plans to do this through our Stibnite Gold Project, we feel compelled to do everything we can to help the environment now – including making biking an easy option for more people in our community.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to us after hearing of the vandalism at the Boise GreenBike hub. Your kindness and support are deeply appreciated. Together, with your help, we can help show people industry and the environment need to work together, and solutions are best found when we engage civilly and focus on common ground.
