Idaho Conservation Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Approval of Stibnite Gold Project

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Several Idaho-based and national conservation groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to challenge its approval of the Stibnite Gold Project, an open-pit cyanide leach gold mine in Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains. 

USFS approved the controversial project in January 2025.

The conservation groups argue the mine would jeopardize public health and clean water, harm threatened plants and animals, and permanently scar thousands of acres of public land in the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River.

The mine site, proposed by Boise-based Perpetua Resources, is 45 air miles east of McCall, adjacent to the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness Area and within the homelands of the Nez Perce Tribe.

“The impacts to the South Fork Salmon River watershed, threatened fish and wildlife, public access, clean air, clean water and world-class recreation from the Stibnite Gold Project are simply unacceptable,” said John Robison, public lands and wildlife director for the Idaho Conservation League. “Given the recent layoffs at the Payette National Forest, we are concerned about the Forest Service’s ability to manage this high-risk project in addition to all their other responsibilities.”

The proposed plan would expand the mine to 3,265 acres and excavate three massive open pits. Conservation groups say it would create 280 million tons of waste rock and include constructing a 475-foot-tall, 120-million-ton tailings storage facility. One of the open pits would extend more than 720 feet beneath the riverbed of the East Fork South Fork Salmon River.

“Permitting this level of destruction not only threatens a culturally important area and cherished public lands, it fails to comply with the law,” said Bryan Hurlbutt, staff attorney at Advocates for the West. “By prioritizing mining and giving Perpetua Resources everything they asked for, the Forest Service violated its duties to protect fish and wildlife, and ensure clean water and air.”

Conservation groups and others submitted 130 objections to the Forest Service's final decision highlighting significant flaws in the mine plan. The groups say the approved version fails to address water quality and public health concerns and fails to protect Idaho’s environment and communities from mining’s harms.

“Despite objections to the Forest Service’s environmental analysis and concerns voiced by hundreds of people about the Stibnite Gold Project due to its pollution and public health risks, especially to Valley County, the Forest Service has neglected to address those concerns,” said Mary Faurot Petterson, board member of Save the South Fork Salmon. “The agency is required by law to consider harms to the environment and reduce those harms.”

The lawsuit also includes the National Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, saying the agencies violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect threatened Chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout, wolverines and whitebark pine from the mine. According to the Forest Service, the South Fork Salmon River contains the “most important remaining habitat for summer Chinook salmon in the Columbia River basin.”

“This lawsuit is about protecting the South Fork Salmon River watershed from a toxic gold mine that would destroy vital habitat for salmon and bull trout along with this breathtakingly beautiful place,” said Marc Fink, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The agencies need to focus on cleaning up the toxic mining pollution that’s already here, not make things worse by greenlighting decades more of it.”

The conservation groups argue that Perpetua Resources is trying to pitch the Stibnite Gold Project as necessary for national defense due to its antimony reserves. They claim that the company received $75 million in federal funding to support antimony extraction, money it is not obligated to repay. 

“The Forest Service is complicit in letting Perpetua Resources pull the wool over the public’s eyes about the true nature of the Stibnite Gold Project,” said Bonnie Gestring, northwest program director at Earthworks. “The vast majority of the project’s value is from gold, not antimony, and the Forest Service’s decision to greenlight the project results in American taxpayers lining the pockets of a mining company.”

Courtesy: www.krem.com