Published: September 9, 2024 |

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Perpetua Resources said the United States Forest Service (USFS) has completed the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) and is issuing a draft record of decision (DROD) authorizing the Stibnite Gold Project.

Documents have been published in the U.S. Federal Register HERE. Based on the USFS schedule, the final record of decision (ROD) is anticipated by the end of 2024.

The USFS decision confirmed that the draft record of decision outlines the Forest Services’ decision to authorize the 2021 modified mine plan. The decision comes after the completion of rigorous interagency permitting review, scientific evaluation, and public input.

The project is designed to provide environmental benefits to an abandoned mine site while producing gold and unlocking the only reserve of antimony within the United States.

“We believe that the Stibnite Gold Project is a win-win-win. It’s a win for Idaho, it’s a win for the environment, and it’s a win for America’s national security. Our independence from Chinese control over antimony is right here in our backyard, and Perpetua Resources is honored to provide a critical part of the solution to the United States’ strategic need for antimony, while also delivering an economically robust gold mine that will create new jobs in Idaho. It’s time for the Stibnite Gold Project to help secure our future,” said Jon Cherry, president and CEO of Perpetua Resources.

Perpetua’s Stibnite Gold Project is positioned to be one of the highest-grade open pit gold projects in the United States with 4.8 million ounces of estimated gold reserves. The Project is expected to produce more than 450,000 ounces of gold annually over the first four years with all-in sustaining costs under $450 per gold ounce based on the 2020 feasibility study.

As a by-product of gold production, the project has a reserve of 148 million pounds of antimony. Antimony is essential for national defense, clean energy, and technology applications, yet no domestically mined supply currently exists.

“The business case is clear, our project has exceptional economics, with an expected payback period of less than 3 years, while providing net environmental benefits and the critical mineral antimony. We have never been closer to unlocking the value of this unparalleled asset,” said Cherry.

The Stibnite Gold Project has undergone a rigorous multi-year, science-based review process that balances environmental outcomes, community and national interest and project economics.

Altogether, the Stibnite Gold Project has undergone:
• 14 years of scientific study, community engagement, and engineering (2010-2024)
• 8 years in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) permitting process (2016-2024)
• 150 days of formal public comment in which 28,000 letters were received, with approximately 85 percent
  expressing support for the project

Following the draft record of decision, there will be a required fixed 45-day objection period and another 45-day resolution period prior to the publication of the final record of cecision, which is expected at the end of the year based on the USFS’s published schedule.

“It is time for the Stibnite Gold Project. We want to see Stibnite restored, and the Stibnite Gold Project is going to make our backyard better. Perpetua Resources has been an exceptional community partner, earning our trust and taking the long and high road to make this project right for Idaho. We are proud of what this project will do for our nation, and excited for how it will restore our corner of Idaho,” said Deb Filler, a resident of Yellow Pine, the closest community to Stibnite.

The Stibnite Gold Project is designed to restore a historic mining district abandoned after 100 years of mostly unregulated mining.

As part of the proposed mine plan authorized in the draft record of cecision, Perpetua Resources will:
• Restore native fish passage, opening miles of pristine spawning habitat that has been inaccessible for 80 years
• Improve water quality by reprocessing and safely storing legacy tailings, reducing arsenic in rivers on site up to
  90 percent
• Restore 450 acres of wetlands for a 63 percent net increase in wetland acres over existing conditions.

There has been a whole-of-government approach to bring antimony production home to the United States. From $75 million in awards from the Department of Defense, to a $1.8 billion letter of interest from U.S. EXIM, there is a profound recognition at the highest levels of government that we need domestic antimony production as soon as possible.

Perpetua has engaged RBC Capital Markets and Endeavour Financial to assist with the evaluation of potential strategic and financing opportunities and to support the company’s application process in connection with the U.S. EXIM $1.8 billion letter of interest received in April 2024.

Perpetua Resources, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is focused on the exploration, site restoration and redevelopment of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho that are encompassed by the Stibnite Gold Project. The project is one of the highest-grade, open pit gold deposits in the United States and is designed to apply a modern, responsible mining approach to restore an abandoned mine site and produce both gold and the only mined source of antimony in the United States. Further advancing Perpetua Resources’ ESG and sustainable mining goals, the project will be powered by the lowest carbon emissions grid in the nation and a portion of the antimony produced from the project will be supplied to Ambri, a U.S.-based company commercializing a low-cost liquid metal battery essential for the low-carbon energy transition. Perpetua Resources has been awarded a Technology Investment Agreement of $59.2 million in Defense Production Act Title III funding to advance construction readiness and permitting of the project. Antimony trisulfide from Stibnite is the only known domestic source of antimony that can meet U.S. defense needs for many small arms, munitions, and missile types.

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