A tribe in Idaho is suing the federal government for approving a mine in the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River that it says violates their treaty rights to hunt and fish and could pollute the region.
The Nez Perce Tribe on Friday filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, challenging the Forest Service’s final approval issued in January under the Biden administration for Perpetua Resources’ Stibnite gold mine. The project is poised to produce antimony, a mineral at the center of a national trade spat with China.
The agency in its record of decision signed off on a 25-year plan for Perpetua to work on three distinct mineral deposits, extract and process ore, reclaim the site, and conduct monitoring. The tribe in the legal challenge raises concerns about the destruction of hundreds acres of wetlands that support critical species like the Chinook salmon, pollution and the restriction of tribal members to the site.
The Canadian mining company Perpetua Resources has secured billions of dollars in federal support to develop the mine and has said that the project would also clean up legacy waste at the proposed mine site and erase pollution from decades of mining and improve water quality and salmon habitat.
