Montanore moves forward

The Kootenai National Forest and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality have released a joint Final Environmental Impact statement for the long-awaited Montanore mine project in Lincoln County. The statement sets the stage for the agencies to issue their records of decision, which are not expected to come before the end of January 2016.

Mines Management Inc. owns the project. Company chief executive officer Glenn Dobbs said he is pleased with the recent progress.

“We are very pleased with the progress made over the past 60 days as we announced today the completion of the Final Environmental Impact Statement,” he said. “The Montanore Project was initially permitted in 1993, and remained fully permitted until 2002, at which time the large Canadian mining company, Noranda, withdrew from the project. Mines Management has expended considerable resources over the past 11 years on refining the mine plan, updating baseline studies, commissioning numerous detailed hydrology and wildlife studies, all focused on re-permitting the project.”

The Montanore project has been more than two decades in the making, and while the environmental impact statement represents a significant step forward, much work remains before final permitting and construction can begin at the mine.

Kootenai National Forest geologist Lynn Hagarty, one of the principal officers involved in the project, said while the Department of Environmental Quality and the Forest Service issued a joint Final Environmental Impact Statement, each agency will be preparing independent records of decision. Those documents will include each agency’s final decisions regarding permitting, as well as stipulations and requirements for construction permitting. 

The Forest Service’s Record of Decision can be issued no earlier than 30 days from the publication of the notice of availability of the Final Environmental Impact Statement in the Federal Register, which is expected as early as Friday, Dec. 18. The Deparment of Environmental Quality could legally issue theirs as early as 15 days from the date of publication, but officials have indicated the Record of Decision won’t be available until Jan. 29, 2016, at the earliest.

“DEQ has issued the Final EIS and must wait 15 days from the publication of the Final EIS to issue our decision document, also known as a Record of Decision (ROD),” said MEPA/MFSA Coordinator Craig Jones of Montana DEQ. “DEQ has decided to go beyond the 15 days and the earliest DEQ would issue the ROD would be Jan. 29, 2016. The ROD will include all of DEQ’s permits for the project. The ROD will explain what DEQ is approving and the rationale for this decision. I do not want to speculate what will be in DEQ’s ROD at this time due to the fact that DEQ is still in the process of drafting this document.”

Forest Supervisor Chris Savage said the Forest Service is working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service regarding changes made between the draft and final impact statements, and is also working with DEQ to coordinate the release of their Record of Decision with that of the state agency. Those issues could potentially bump the final decision beyond the Jan. 29 date.

“After the 30 days, we can publish the Record of Decision, however, we need to hear both from the EPA and the USFWS,” he said. “We need to hear from the EPA on the changes we made post objection period related to the Final Environmental Impact Statement and then changes that have been made between our FEIS and when U.S. Fish and Wildlife issued us their Biological Opinion, mitigation plan and terms and conditions. We had been meeting with them up to this point, so hopefully we will hear back from both agencies within this 30 day period, but that is really up to them.

“Also, we want to time the release of our ROD with the DEQ’s ROD. So there will be a lot of coordination with the state on that and that may bump us a little out of the 30 day window. In any case, we are hoping to release the ROD towards the end of January, but all these other things need to fall into place.”

Once the final ROD is issued, Mines Management will need to submit a plan of operation, which must be in compliance with the terms and conditions of the Record of Decision. In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers will need to issue a 404 permit, which considers impacts to wetlands and the mitigation of those impacts. The Corps uses the data from the Final Environmental Impact Statement in considering issuance of the 404 permit.

Hagarty said there are a number of permits that must be issued prior to construction on the mine, but none of these permits require anything unusual. The agencies, she said, have been working on aspects of the various permits throughout the FEIS process. She characterized the issuance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement as a “major step.”

“It is a step in the process,” she said. “It’s a major step because there’s so much work that goes into these analyses.”

Mines Management Inc. has been under financial pressure of late. The company recently sold more than $1.6 million in equipment to help generate enough money to sustain operations into the first quarter of 2016. The company is currently under a compliance plan with the New York Stock Exchange due to falling stock prices, now valued at 16 cents per share as of 4 p.m. Thursday. If the company doesn’t regain compliance by Dec. 31, 2015, they could be delisted from the exchange.

Dobbs said the company has options on the table to finance the next phase of the project, which is estimated to cost between $30 million and $40 million.

“The company has several options open for financing the upcoming evaluation/feasibility the primary focus of which is on a partnership with a silver streaming/royalty company that will finance the next round in return for a percentage of cash flows generated from mining,” Dobbs said.