Copper mine proposed on edge of Opal Creek Wilderness near Detroit

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  A Canadian mining company has resurrected plans for a copper, gold and silver mine located just outside the Opal Creek Wilderness and about 10 miles northwest of Detroit, the Statesman Journal has confirmed.

Ameriwest Critical Metals, based in British Columbia, purchased mining claims known as the Bornite Project in November 2025 and is working through early stages of what could become an underground mine producing 1,000 tons of copper per day.

The project was originally proposed in the early 1990s and came close to reality before going dormant for three decades.

Now, Ameriwest is looking to fast-track the mine under Trump administration rules designed to shorten permitting on public lands for critical metals, like copper, used in cellphones, data centers and other electronics.

Ameriwest CEO David Watkinson said in an interview with the Statesman Journal it would still take years to get approval, requiring multiple permits, navigating a public process and complying with environmental laws.

Watkinson said the project could bring jobs to the Santiam Canyon, improve infrastructure and even become a tourist attraction while it produces metals almost everybody uses but often come from overseas.

“It won’t happen overnight,” he said. “This is just the start of a long process and a project we want to develop in an environmentally and socially responsible method.”

Opposition to the project due to environmental concerns is likely.

The mine would sit along Cedar Creek and any pollution could flow into the Little North Santiam and North Santiam River — the drinking water source for Salem, Stayton and other towns.

It’s also on the boundary of the 36,000-acre Opal Creek Wilderness and Scenic Recreation Area, one of Oregon’s most popular recreation areas until it was burned in the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire.

The U.S. Forest Service recently said the Opal Creek area won’t open to the public until 2027 and 2028. But Ameriwest was granted a permit to use closed roads for exploratory drilling this year and has filed additional mining claims in the area.

“We will advocate against this mine being built,” said Nathan Reynolds, executive director of the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center. "The recovery of the ecosystem is happening but it's fragile. It's not the right place or the right time for a proposal like this.”

Jan Morrill, international mining senior manager at the nonprofit Earthworks, said cities should carefully consider the risks of having a copper mine at the headwaters of their watershed or on the doorstep of conservation areas.

“Time and again we see mining companies not able to deliver on the claims they make around environmental safeguards,” she said. “It’s going to be important that everyone downstream understands the risk.”

Courtesy: www.statesmanjournal.com