Published: April 15, 2016 |

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State environmental officials have stopped analyzing a Spokane-based mining company’s bid to look for gold near the border of Yellowstone National Park and have asked the company to resubmit its exploration application, saying the document didn’t include all the work the company planned to do.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality sent a letter to Crevice Mining Group on Monday that lined out several areas where the company’s plan to combine an application for mineral exploration with a small miner’s exclusion statement — an exemption from permitting for small mines — might break the law because the small miner’s exclusion would lead to exploration work beyond what had been included in the other application.

“We came to the conclusion that they were really trying to cover additional exploration work with their small miner exclusion statement,” said Edward Hayes, a DEQ attorney.

The state said it is suspending environmental review of the project until the company files an amended application that includes the additional work that the company wanted to do under the small miner’s exclusion.

Michael Werner, the head of Crevice Mining Group, said that he’d rather not have gotten the letter, but that it doesn’t upset him or raise concerns about the future of the project.

“The reality is you have to follow Montana law,” Werner said.

Werner said he would be evaluating whether he agrees with claims DEQ made in the letter or if he still believes his applications were completely legal. He declined to say whether or when the company would resubmit the permit, saying that he needed more time to examine the letter.

“At this point, we’re not really sure of what they’re saying,” said Werner, adding that some of the claims “probably aren’t accurate,” though he wasn’t specific.

DEQ said they are open to conversations with him, but that they are confident in the decision.

“We’ll listen to him, but I think at this point we’ve come to the conclusions set forth in the letter,” Hayes said.

In September 2015, Crevice Mining Group filed for a small miner’s exclusion statement on Crevice Mountain near Jardine, a town just north of the Yellowstone National Park border. A small miner’s exclusion statement exempts hard rock mines with fewer than 5 acres of surface disturbance from the permitting process larger mines must go through.

In October 2015, the company filed an application for exploration in the same area. Exploration is one of the first steps in developing a large scale mine and it requires the regular permitting process, including public comment periods and environmental analysis by DEQ. A public comment period on the proposal ended in early March, and DEQ had begun work on the environmental review.

The company planned to combine the two permits, which is what raised concerns for DEQ. Ponozzo said the department had been concerned about that for some time

“This is something that we have identified as a concern for quite some time,” Ponozzo said.

DEQ’s letter cited issues like how much surface disturbance was included in the application and the potential for some mining activity to go without a reclamation bond.

In the letter, DEQ said the company planned to build a mining decline under the small miner’s exclusion that would also be used in exploration. While the company’s application says there would be separate declines, DEQ’s letter says the one used for exploration would be an extension of the one built under the small miner’s exclusion. Because it would be connected, DEQ argued, it should be included in the exploration application.

Hayes said that was just one way that the two were linked that wasn’t included in the exploration application, adding that there were also a hard rock waste dump and and facilities that appeared to be serving both projects.

“You can see it’s really one operation,” Hayes said.

The DEQ’s letter also argued that if the exploration activity found something worth mining, surface disturbance would exceed what’s allowed under a small miner’s exclusion.

Crevice’s small miner’s exclusion included 4.9 acres of disturbance. If the exploration activity were added, that number would balloon to 19.4 acres of disturbance because of portions of exploration that DEQ said would be required for mining.

Reclamation bonding was another issue discussed in the letter. Exploration projects require a bond for recovering the area disturbed, while small miner’s exclusion projects — unless they are placer mines — do not. If the two projects were combined, it would leave part of the operation without bonding.

Ponozzo said that the letter doesn’t mean the project won’t go forward, just that Crevice needs to fix the problems in the application.

“It’s not a ‘no you can’t ever do this,’” Ponozzo said. “It’s a ‘we need you to propose it in the correct manner.’”

Hayes added that he doesn’t think Werner intentionally flouted the law.

“I think it might be more of a misunderstanding,” Hayes said.

The proposal riled local residents, environmental and business groups. DEQ received more than 200 comments on the proposal, and an online petition against the project garnered more than 73,000 signatures.

Barbara Shesky, the executive director of the Gardiner Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that she was happy with the DEQ’s decision to send the application back to the company, and appreciates that they are analyzing the application closely.

“A mine at the edge of Yellowstone National Park demands the highest level of scrutiny,” Shesky said.

Jardine has been the site of mining in the past. TVX Gold Inc. ran a mine on Mineral Hill there in the 1990s. It closed in 1996. Michael Werner is a former TVX executive.

Source: (April 12, 2016) Bozeman Daily Chronicle

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