The U.S. Forest Service is requiring a Canadian company to post bonds before exploring or expanding a gold mine in Idaho.
Toronto-based Atlanta Gold will be required to put up a $1.3 million bond before drilling exploration holes for its proposed underground gold mine in the Boise River watershed, according to the Canadian Press.
Before the Forest Service will issue a permit, it wants Atlanta Gold to provide the bond for 18 months and another $7.3 million bond after the exploration period ends.
Atlanta Gold said requiring a bond for its voluntary efforts to clean up arsenic-laced water from an old mine is an unfair infringement of its right to mine on public lands under the 1872 Mining Act.
“We are offering to do this voluntarily and we are being penalized for it,” said Ernest Simmons, Atlanta Gold’s chief operating officer in Boise.
The site already suffers arsenic pollution from past mining. A permanent water treatment facility is needed to prevent arsenic from flowing into Montezuma Creek and the Middle Fork of the Boise River.
“We are cautiously optimistic,” said John Robison, of the Idaho Conservation League. “In the past, taxpayers have been burned when mining companies have bolted, leaving the public to clean up the mess. It appears the Forest Service is taking this risk seriously.”
CONTACT US at 208.336.3768
WANT THREE FREE ISSUES?
