Forest officials seek comment on Yaak River mining plan

The Yaak River. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)

| June 11, 2024 7:00 AM

The Kootenai National Forest is seeking public comment on proposed small-scale mineral exploration projects located in the Yaak River and Star Creek near Troy.

The Three Rivers Ranger District is preparing a draft environmental assessment addressing three plans of operation for conducting small-scale mineral exploration activities.

Comments will be accepted for 30 days after the legal notice posting in the Missoulian on June 1.

The three plans of operations submitted to the Three Rivers Ranger District propose to suction dredge in the Yaak River and Star Creek, while minimizing potential environmental impacts.

A suction dredge is a motorized vacuum that draws up stream bottom material through an intake hose and passes the material over a sluice box stationed on a floating platform in order to separate flakes of gold from other particles.

Individuals use suction dredges to extract metals (predominantly gold) from stream bottom sand and gravel deposits.

The plans of operation propose to pan, sluice and suction dredge for gold instream. Each operation would use one dredge with intake hose diameters of four inches or less. The operators would not dredge, sluice or otherwise disturb the stream banks.

The claims are situated within the following public land survey system areas: Claim 1 located in section 7, Township 32 North, Range 34 West, PMM, Claim 2 located in section 17, Township 33 North, Range 33 West, PMM and Claim 3 is located in section 33, Township 34 North, Range 33 West, PMM.

For more information on the project and specific instructions for how to comment, please visit the project website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/kootenai/?project=65128.

The claimants have rights under the 1872 Mining Law to prospect for minerals on National Forest lands. The draft environmental assessment responds to the rights of the operators while simultaneously ensuring other laws and regulations are met.

Submitted comments may be done by one of the following methods:

- Written comments must be addressed to the Responsible Official, Sam Martin, Three Rivers District Ranger, 12858 US Highway 2, Troy, Montana 59935. The office business hours for those submitting hand-delivered comments are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding holidays;

- Fax comments to (406-295-7410), attention: Sam Martin, District Ranger, and include Why Not Stardust Mineral Exploration Project in the subject line;

- Submit email comments through the project website https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/kootenai/?project=65128; on the right-hand side, click “get Connected”, then “Comment on Project.” The subject line must contain the name of the project.

Email comments must be submitted in rich text format (.rtf), or Word (.doc) format.

For emailed comments, the sender should normally receive an automated electronic acknowledgement from the agency as confirmation of receipt. If not, it is the sender’s responsibility to ensure timely receipt by other means.

Forest officials estimate a decision may be made by Sept. 1 with work beginning as soon as Oct. 1.

For more information, contact Julie Hopkinson, Interdisciplinary Team (IDT) Project Leader, at 406-293-6211 or Sam Martin, District Ranger, at 406-295-4693.