Forest Service Allows Drilling to Resume in Exploration of Yellowstone Goldmine

The U.S. Forest Service Friday approved the resumption of drilling for gold in a mine west of Yellowstone National Park in Idaho, according to The Associated Press.

A subsidiary of Toronto-based Excellon Resources, Excellon Idaho Gold's Kilgore Gold Exploration Project in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest was initially approved in 2018 before it was stopped by lawsuits, and a new plan with new environmental considerations was approved Friday.

According to the company, the area contains about 825,000 ounces of gold and they plan to search for it by digging in an open-pit mine.

In 2019 and 2020, federal court rulings stopped drilling due to potential harm to cutthroat trout, a sensitive species facing threats to population or habitat. The new plan, however, will pull water from a different stream where the trout do not live.

The Idaho Conservation League filed the initial Nov. 2018 lawsuit after the project was approved by the Forest Service, alleging the drilling could pollute ground and surface water, along with harming the habitat of grizzly bears, whitebark pine, cutthroat trout and Columbia spotted frogs.

A federal court ruled the Forest Service had adequately evaluated the harm potentially caused to the animals and environment except for the trout. The court said the Forest Service hadn't done enough research into the potential for pollution and harm to the trout in its home of the Dog Bone Ridge drainage.

"As an Idaho native, I know how important it is to protect the animals, lands and waters we all cherish," Phil Bandy, Excellon's Senior Project Manager, said in a statement. "I am committed to collaborating with my fellow Idahoans to sustain a balance of economic development and natural resources stewardship."

For more reporting from The Associated Press, see below.

The new plan approved by the Forest Service says water for drilling at Dog Bone Ridge will now come from Beaver Creek rather than Coral Creek. The agency also said Excellon has added several monitoring sites associated with Dog Bone Ridge.
The company's plan approved in 2018 included 10 miles (16 kilometers) of new roads and 140 drill stations.

The Forest Service in its approval on Friday said 10 drill sites had been built before the lawsuit halted the project, so the latest approval is for 130 drill sites. The surface disturbance associated with the new plan is 22 acres (9 hectares).

Josh Johnson of the Idaho Conservation League said the group was reviewing the Forest Service's approval and keeping its options open.

"In general, we still have significant concerns regarding impact to water quality and wildlife from the proposed exploration project," he said.