BLM proposes more land withdrawal at Zortman-Landusky mine areas

Editor's note: Watch for more on this story in upcoming editions of Havre Daily News.

The federal government is proposing pulling more land in The Little Rocky Mountains out of bounds for new mining, putting the portion proposed for withdrawal back to about what it was from 2000 to 2020.

The Bureau of Land Management is proposing a withdrawal of more than 900 acres at the Zortman-Landusky Mine reclamation area, the bureau said in a press release, in addition to the lands previously proposed for withdrawal Oct. 7, 2020. The total acreage of the two withdrawals would cover approximately the same area as the previous 20-year withdrawal that expired in 2020.

"Proposing to withdraw this additional area is responsive to comments we received from the Fort Belknap tribes and the public," said Acting BLM Montana/Dakotas State Director Theresa Hanley. "We developed an alternative in our environmental assessment that considers this additional withdrawal."

The area has more than 100 years of history of mining for gold. The federal government pressured the tribes on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in the 1890s to sell back land on the southern part of the reservation after gold was discovered there and mining began.

In 1997, Zortman Mining Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pegasus Mining Co., 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.

Approximately $83.7 million in reclamation bonds and state of Montana and BLM funding have been spent since 1999 to fund site reclamation and water treatment plant operations after the mine operator declared bankruptcy and abandoned the mines in 1998.

The area has come under contention again when a Bozeman-based company filed for permits with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to conduct mining exploration - not actual mining itself - on private land in the area in 2020 in a several-day window when the 20-year withdrawal expired and a new proposal for withdrawal was not filed until Oct. 7, 2020.

One permit was approved, leading Fort Belknap Indian Community and other groups to file a lawsuit over that approval, saying the company, Blue Arc, is not registered to do business in Montana and the tribes were not consulted in the permitting process.

Another permit request was filed and is under consideration. After a public hearing held in January this year about an environmental assessment on the request, with virtually universal opposition to the mine exploration, DEQ said comments on the draft environmental assessment on the new mine exploration request led the department to decide a full environmental impact statement must be prepared before a decision could be made.

In the latest development on the federal side, the BLM proposed a withdrawal and two-year segregation of 2,688.13 acres in October 2020. This newly proposed withdrawal of 912.33 acres would limit new mining or disturbance of these additional acres of public land while providing the BLM time to assess and monitor the effectiveness of ongoing reclamation activities and ensure public safety.

That requires the publication of an additional Federal Register notice and another opportunity for public comment.

The publication of the notice in the Federal Register closes 912.33 acres of land from appropriation under the public land laws, including location and entry under the United States mining laws for up to two years, subject to valid existing rights. This closure will protect the lands and facilitate reclamation efforts at the Zortman and Landusky mines.

BLM is seeking public input on this proposed withdrawal. Public comments will be accepted for 90 days following the Federal Register notice publication, available online at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/06/06/2022-12103/notice-of-proposed-withdrawal-and-public-meeting-montana .

A virtual Zoom meeting to provide for public comment will be held Tuesday, June 21, at 4 p.m. at https://blm.zoomgov.com/j/1616502018?pwd=d1hHenZNdnk2ZmhqY0tPaFUxMUFa

UT09, Meeting ID: 161 650 2018, Passcode: 544914.