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McCall Says 'No' To Stibnite Mine Agreement

Midas Gold
The Yellow Pine pit blocks natural passage of the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River, a barrier to Chinook reaching their historic spawning grounds. It's also a source of heavy metal leaching into the river.

On Monday, the McCall City Council decided not to sign a community agreement with the mining company Midas Gold.

 

City leaders decided to wait until a draft environmental impact statement is released later this summer, before drafting their own memorandum of understanding with the mining company.

Midas Gold is undergoing the permitting process to re-open the nearby Stibnite mine.

The chief purpose of the community agreement is to open a line of communication between the mine and the communities where it operates.

Most surrounding cities have already signed the agreement, including Riggins, Yellow Pine, Cascade, Donnelly, New Meadows and Council — plus both Idaho and Adams counties.

Signing the agreement means communities get to put a representative on an advisory council that’ll have the ear of the mine. They'll also get to put a representative on the board of a forthcoming charitable foundation related to the company.

Midas Gold has said that joining the community agreement is not necessarily an endorsement of the mine. Critics of the agreement say the mining company should’ve waited for the release of an environmental impact statement before asking communities to sign on.

The majority of public comment heard at Monday’s city council meeting was from people opposed to the project.

Apart from McCall, Valley County has also not yet signed the community agreement.

Audio from Monday's meeting and a draft of the community agreement can be found on the city of McCall's website.

For more local news, follow the KBSX newsroom on Twitter @KBSX915

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