#earthworks
By Shardell Joseph
Documents revealed that the Trump administration has allowed British Columbia-based mining company, Midas Gold, largely influence the writing of an environmental report. According to conservation group, Earthworks, which obtained the documents, the input Midas Gold will contribute will aid government approval for its Idaho gold mine project.
An Idaho statesman claimed that access to the environmental report proposed open-pit gold mines in central Idaho, USA, which were previously rebuffed from the Forest Service.
The report, called a biological assessment, would typically be written by the Forest Service or an independent contractor. Its purpose is to examine the potential effect the open-pit mines would have on salmon, steelhead and bull trout protected under the Endangered Species Act.
In February 2018, internal documents show the agency denied Midas Gold’s request to participate as a non-federal representative in writing the assessment because the massive project would likely harm protected fish. However, by October 2018, Midas Gold was both participating and leading the writing of the document.
The company claims that Idaho there is over 113 million grams of gold and more than 45 million kilograms of antinomy at the Idaho site. The company plans on additional mining in the two open pits already there and to create a third open pit, doubling the size of the area utilised for the mining. They say they will restore ‘much of the area’ when they finish mining.
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