If you read just one article about the risks of reopening the Idaho-Maryland Mine, let this be the one. By conservative columnist for the Union, Terry McLaughlin.
Rise Gold Corp., a Canadian mining company based in Vancouver, submitted an application to restart mining operations at the old Idaho-Maryland Mine in Grass Valley.
The permit application describes a drill and blast regime to remove 1,500 tons of rock per day, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week for approximately 80 years. The two main processing facilities would be on 119 acres at the junction of Brunswick and East Bennett, and 56 acres along Idaho Maryland Road, east of Centennial Drive. Approximately 2.4 million cubic yards of mining tailings and rock waste would be deposited at the two locations.
In an April interview with CBS 13, Rise Gold CEO Benjamin Mossman said of the proposed project, “We’ve designed it to have no impact on the environment.”
It is difficult to see how such a massive project could have no impact on the environment or residents’ quality of life.
At the Brunswick site, the first six months of operation would include pumping 3.6 million gallons of water daily from the abandoned mine shafts into South Fork Wolf Creek. Discharged water would be treated, bringing the treated water to secondary drinking water standards. He has acknowledged that while the water may have no known detrimental impacts to human health, elements in the water could cause pipes to rust and emit a distinct musty odor.
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Read the rest of the article in the Union here.
Learn more about community efforts to Stop the Idaho-Maryland Mine.
Terry McLaughlin, who lives in Grass Valley, writes a twice monthly column for The Union.