Pollution from Proposed Stibnite Gold Project Threatens Our Health, Air, Water, and Wildlife

Earthworks and Idaho conservation partners to appeal Clean Water Act permit

The Stibnite Gold Project (SGP) is a massive project that will excavate three open pits and produce roughly 400 million tons of mine waste. It is proposed at the headwater of the South Fork Salmon River adjacent to the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area and on the traditional lands of the Nez Perce Tribe, who have reserved the right to fish, hunt and gather in their 1855 Treaty with the U.S. government. The proposed mine plan threatens those treaty rights, along with clean air and water, public health and wildlife, including threatened salmon, steelhead and bull trout, and wolverines. 

Last month, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) issued Perpetua Resources a water quality permit for the SGP. Earthworks, along with our Idaho conservation partners, are appealing that permit.

The permit requires the mining company and IDEQ to demonstrate that the mine will comply with the federal Clean Water Act and meet water quality standards. Our appeal contends that IDEQ has failed to do so, raising a number of issues with the permit, including:  

• Water quality impacts from mercury and arsenic; 
• Failure to consider water quality impacts projected by the U.S. Forest Service; 
• Failure to certify whether the West End pit lake will comply with water quality standards; and
• Failure to consider important socioeconomic factors to justify degradation of water quality. 

This appeal follows on the heels of another appeal by the Nez Perce Tribe and others of the SGP air quality permit. That appeal resulted in a May 2024 decision by the Idaho Board of Environmental Quality, which has oversight authority of IDEQ, to invalidate Perpetua Resources’ air quality permit due to public health risks from the massive amounts of arsenic-laden toxic dust generated by the mine that would extend beyond the mine’s boundaries. Speaking on behalf of the Board, member Dr. J. Randy MacMillan stated, “DEQ created a misleading risk analysis that greatly underestimates the actual cancer risk.”

The proposed Stibnite Mine presents serious public and ecological health risks that must be addressed. Please join our email list if you’d like to get updates on our work or notified when there are opportunities to speak up for a clean and healthy environment.