Indianz.Com > News > Montana Free Press: Fort Belknap Indian Community seeks federal review of new mining claims

New mining claims at Zortman prompt push for investigation
The Fort Belknap Indian Community and conservation groups say a 48-hour lapse in decades’ worth of mine claim bans allowed Bozeman-based Blue Arc LLC to stake 10 new mining claims.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Montana Free Press
The Fort Belknap Indian Community and three conservation groups are petitioning the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the cause of the department’s failure to keep a mineral withdrawal — a regulatory tool that blocks federal agencies from approving new mining claims — in force at the Zortman-Landusky reclamation area near the Fort Belknap Reservation.
As a result of a 48-hour gap in protections on October 5 and 6, 2020, 10 new mining claims were filed in an area still grappling with an acid mine drainage clean-up that has cost more than $77 million to date and is expected to continue for generations.
“We deserve an explanation,” FBIC President Andrew Werk Jr. said in a press release about the petition. “Whether the Department’s failure to properly implement the closure was an honest — albeit careless — mistake or the result of intentional misconduct, the consequences are enormous for the health and wellbeing of our people. With stakes this high, we must have accountability.”
Complaint: Fort Belknap Indian Community [PDF]
In the 1980s and 1990s, 2.5 million ounces of gold were mined from the Zortman and Landusky mines with cyanide heap leaching. In 1998, the mines’ owner Pegasus Gold filed for bankruptcy, leaving federal and state agencies with a massive clean-up effort. As a result of past gold and silver mining operations, the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes have been dealing with surface and groundwater pollution as well as metals pollution throughout the Little Rocky Mountains in north-central Montana for more than 20 years.
In the complaint, the groups argue that given the research and planning that’s required before a person or corporation can stake and file a mining claim, it’s suspicious that Bozeman-based Blue Arc, LLC was able to take advantage of the 48-hour window between the expiration of the old order and the implementation of a new one to stake the 10 new claims.
In 2000, to facilitate ongoing reclamation work, the Interior Department issued a five-year order preventing entities from filing new mining claims on the site’s 3,530 acres of public land. After three subsequent five-year extensions, the department was preparing to issue a 20-year mineral withdrawal to go into effect in October 2020. But because notice of the 20-year order was published in the Federal Register three days after the expiration of the preceding 5-year order, there was a two-day gap during which new mining claims were not prohibited. The Federal Register is a government log book where rules, proposed rules and executive orders pertaining to federal agencies are publicly noticed.


Billings native Amanda Eggert covers environmental issues for MTFP. Amanda is a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism who has written for Outside magazine and Outlaw Partners. At Outlaw Partners she led coverage for the biweekly newspaper Explore Big Sky. Contact Amanda at aeggert@montanafreepress.org.
Note: This story originally appeared on Montana Free Press. It is published under a Creative Commons license.
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