Tribes oppose mining exploration in Little Rockies

Leaders of the Fort Belknap Indian Community said they are glad to have the opportunity to talk about a proposed new mine exploration in the Little Rocky Mountains because it will give its members a chance to show their opposition to the proposal.

"The tribe's 100 percent opposed," Fort Belknap Indian Community Council President Jeff Stiffarm said.

"We're going to fight this tooth and nail," he added. "I'm glad our people at least will have the chance to speak."

Montana Department of Environmental Quality said it has scheduled a public hearing at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 4, to hear public comments on a draft environmental assessment for Luke Ployhar's proposed exploration project in the location of the former Zortman Mine operated by Zortman Mining Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pegasus Mining Co.

The public hearing will be in the school in Hays as well as accessible via Zoom and telephone.

A previous request for an exploration permit in the area from Ployhar's company Blue Arc LLC of Minnesota- which Stiffarm said is not licensed to do business in Montana - received an approving environmental assessment from DEQ in February pending posting of sufficient bond.

Fort Belknap Indian Community and other groups filed a lawsuit over that approval, saying Blue Arc is not registered to do business in Montana and the tribes were not consulted in the permitting process.

The Pegasus mine was shut down after the company filed for bankruptcy in 1997. It did not have a large enough bond to cover cleanup and the state and federal government - and the Fort Belknap Indian Community - still are dealing with environmental damage caused by the mines, conducted as open-pit heap leach mines.

Ployhar said if exploration shows viable mining, he plans to use underground non-heap leach, conventional mining, and the exploration could bring some jobs to the area and the mining would bring more.

He said any mining would be done responsibly.

"We will always consider the environment and (Fort Belknap's) concerns a top priority," Ployhar said.

Plans for new mining

Ployhar said the proposal is in permitting for the preliminary exploration phase now. The purpose of that phase is to identify areas that would warrant looking at the potential of underground mining.

He said mines at Zortman and Landusky historically were underground mines that followed faults or veins of decent value. He added that work done by Pegasus indicates those structures are still in the area and have potential for development.

"Eventually, I would believe developing the underground mine would result in jobs in the area," he said. "In the short term, there may be the need for a few job opportunities that may arise from the exploration phase, but we are still in the early stages. Economically there will surely be a benefit at any phase due to jobs, logistical support, equipment rentals in the area, and miscellaneous expenses that help support the local economies."

Ongoing damage to the environment

The area has more than a century of history of mining.

The federal government coerced the Fort Belknap tribes in the 1890s to sell the land, part of the original Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, back to the government after gold was discovered there.

Modern mining came to the area in 1979.

Pegasus started mining in the area again, using heap leach mining to extract gold from from two open-pit mines totaling about 1,200 acres of land, half public and half private, before going bankrupt in 1997.

The process, which uses chemicals including cyanide to leach minerals like gold from ore, left heavy environmental damage.

The bond posted by Pegasus did not cover the costs, and the state and federal government have spent millions on the cleanup so far with millions more to come in annual water treatment along with reclamation.

Mining exploration

In its release about the public meeting, DEQ notes that the exploration permit is not a permit for mining.

"An exploration license authorizes activity for the purpose of determining the presence and extent of an ore body," the release said. "An exploration license does not authorize the mining of an ore body."

The release also noted that a draft environmental assessment does not make a decision on the application, but instead is a disclosure document of the potential impacts from the project.

It also talked about the legal requirements on DEQ.

"If a proposed project meets the requirements of Montana law (82-4-332, Montana Code Annotated)," it said, "DEQ must issue the exploration license."

Those requirements are that the applicant pay a $100 fee, agree to reclaim any surface area damaged by the exploration as may be reasonably required by DEQ, not be in default of any other reclamation obligation under that law, and file an application meeting legal requirements.

It also requires the applicant to file a reclamation and vegetation bond for the exploration.

Opposition to new mining

Stiffarm said that while the meeting Jan. 4 actually is not about new mining, just the environmental impacts of exploration, which the assessment found would be minimal, he expects many people to talk about their opposition to new mining.

He said the tribe's opposition to any mining is due to what Pegasus left behind.

"The taxpayers will pay on that forever, probably," Stiffarm said.

Council member Warren Morin said the tribes want to protect the wellbeing of all people affected, including in the Zortman and Landusky area and downstream from the reservation as well - people as far away as Saco could be impacted eventually, he said, if not themselves their grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

"Acid runoff drainage, it's coming down, marching its way down Mission Canyon," he said.

He said a lot of speculation has happened on what the long-term effects will be.

"Eventually, it's going get into our drinking water," he said "It could be a disaster for us. I live downstream and drink that water."

He said it also has impacted the environment and recreation. Water was diverted for the mining operation, and now for reclamation efforts, and areas that used to be full of trout now have hardly any due to the reduced water.

Stiffarm said DEQ personnel and its director toured the area at the invitation of the tribes last summer.

"It's a real eye-opener to see such a beautiful area - especially sacred to the (tribes) - and look at some of that runoff," he said. "The color of the water, it's not normal."

Ployhar: Mining techniques prevent damage

Ployhar said if he starts mining in the area it would not resemble the operations of Pegasus.

"Pegasus left a very negative impact on the perception of mining in the state, and the mining bonds they left behind were deemed unsatisfactory by the DEQ," he said. "The DEQ has since adjusted their bond requirements to meet current needs to ensure proper cleanup at mine sites."

He said if underground mining does start as a result of the exploration, modern mining techniques and technology would address all concerns.

That includes little surface disturbance, because the mines would be underground and usually only a few surface buildings are needed, Ployhar said.

He said water treatment plants already exist at Zortman and Landusky, and added that his group believes future mining could actually help.

"It is our belief that it would be of benefit to the area since future mining would contribute to mitigation of any water issues that would probably go beyond the current mitigation efforts," Ployhar said. "... In addition, any mineralized vein structures that are removed during mining (are) replaced with backfills that neutralize any acid rock drainage (and) will only benefit the underground water table and assist in solving contamination issues."

More than health concerns

But Stiffarm, who said he still is concerned about environmental damage, said even aside from the damage to health and well-being, the damage to the land is opposed.

"It affects the water, wildlife, mountains," he said. "They're sacred to us. We have our Sundance grounds up there, we have our powwow grounds up there. Eagle Child is one of our sacred mountains there, it's right next to that area."

Stiffarm said his people have extensive past and cultural history in the area impacted, and they still use them.

"People go up to fast and prepare themselves for Sundance," he said. "Not only that, it affects our recreation ... our livelihood."

He said studies or assessments of mining in the area don't take into account how it affects the people, mentally and spiritually and physically.

"Its pretty tough ... to watch our mountains waste away with that mine that they left behind there," he said "... Now they are proposing a new mine out there."

Morin said the spiritual and emotional impact is immense.

"(In) our beliefs, mountains are like people. You don't deface them, you don't drill holes in them, you don't go taking a bulldozer and scarring up on them. They have a spirit just like a person," he said. "By tearing that mountain down ... it was really devastating, mentally and spiritually, to our people that lived back then that watched it."

Morin said he was one of the people who did watch it. At 4 p.m. each day explosions would start, shaking and rattling the windows of his house, then a few minutes later a cloud of brown dust would go up.

"It was just systematic devastation," he said.

Questions on the mining claims

And Fort Belknap Indian Community, and several groups which also joined the lawsuit over Blue Arc's exploration permit granted in February, have called into question the fact that new mining claims were filed at all.

Since 2000, U.S. Department of Interior had been issuing five-year withdrawals of the federal lands in the region from mining claims, renewing the withdrawals every five years.

In a request for an investigation by the office of the inspector general of the U.S. Interior Department, the group notes that Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt signed a notice for a 20-year mineral withdrawal, although on a reduced area, Oct. 1, 2020, but the notice wasn't published in the federal register until Oct. 7, 2020.

The previous five-year withdrawal expired Oct. 4, 2020, and Blue Arc filed 10 mining claims in the area Oct. 5, prior to the intended withdrawal being noticed to the public.

The letter, signed by representatives of Fort Belknap and Montana Trout Unlimited, Montana Environmental Information Center and Earthworks, asks the office of the inspector general to answer several questions including why the withdrawal was not noticed in a timely manner; why Fort Belknap wasn't notified of the lapse and the staking of new claims; when the new claims were physically staked and whether their validity is being reviewed; what communications occurred between Bureau of Land Management or Interior Department and Blue Arc or any person associated with the claims, and if those communications were legal and if anyone associated with Blue Arc was notified in advance that the withdrawal extension would be delayed.

Handling of the application

Fort Belknap also has some problems with the start of the permitting process.

Dan Belcourt, legal counsel for the Fort Belknap Indian Community, said the DEQ has started consulting with the tribes on the permits but it did not do so at first with the permit approved in February.

Stiffarm said they had to file something in court to get the state's attention.

"When they initially filed that permit, (the state) didn't consult with the tribe. The tribes found out about it in a newspaper or something. That's when we filed a lawsuit. After that they tried to reach out, government-to-government relations."

But, Morin said, even with the decades of consultations and requests for help from the tribes for the cleanup, the government is still leaving the concerns out of the process.

"They ask for our help (with the Pegasus mine cleanup) and then turn around and issue permits," he said. "It's kind of confusing to me why they would ask us for help and then issue the permits."

He added that recent history doesn't support that.

"It happened before," Morin said. "Those guys took the money and ran, filed bankruptcy, stuck the taxpayers with the cleanup cost. That's not right. Somebody should have been charged back then. I just feel its criminal."

Stiffarm said no one seems to be concerned about the people of Fort Belknap - or others impacted - but only are concerned about the money.

"We feel our people's lives are more important than that gold out there," Stiffarm said. "They get the gold and spend that money but the lives they effect will still be there."

"It's a problem thats going to be around for a long, long time," he added. "And it's only getting worse, that's the crazy thing about it."

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See a previous story on the public meeting in the Dec. 21 edition of Havre Daily News or online at https://www.havredailynews.com/story/2021/12/21/local/public-meeting-set-regarding-proposed-new-mining-in-little-rockies/536656.html.

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What: A public meeting on the draft EA for Luke Ployhar's proposed exploration project.

When: Tuesday, Jan. 4, at 4 p.m.

Where: Hays School and held via Zoom, accessible online and by telephone.

• To access the online meeting via Zoom or for a call-in number, people can visit: https://lukeployharexploration.eventbrite.com or call DEQ Public Relations Specialist Moira Davin, 406-461-2503.

DEQ prepared a draft EA to analyze potential impacts from the proposed exploration project and will accept public comments on the draft EA until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 11. To submit comments or view the document, visit the DEQ website at: https://deq.mt.gov/News/publiccomment-folder/news-article1 .