LINCOLN — Sentinel Metals, the company eyeing gold and silver near the headwaters of the Blackfoot River, hosted an open house about their exploration mining proposal in Lincoln on Tuesday. The meeting brought the community and company representatives together to discuss the Columbia Gold and Silver Project, which has draw concern from some due to the area’s complex history with mining projects.
“The reason I'm here is that I want to know what the impact of this mining is gonna have on our town,” Lincoln resident Toni Eckart said.
Sentinel Metals, an Australian mining company, applied for an exploration license amendment in January with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) under the name Great Plains Mining, LLC.
Sentinel Metals Vice President of Government and Community Relations Krista Lee Evans said Tuesday’s community meeting was the first of many to come, as the company explores the project and deposits.
”We're holding an open house to be able to share factual information with the citizens of the Lincoln area,” she said. “It's their community and we want to make sure they understand our exploration project.”
For the exploration, they proposed drilling 21 new holes at the project site — private land about eight miles outside of Lincoln.
“Exploration is critical for us to understand what is included in the deposit, and only about one in 1,000 exploration projects ever turn into a mine,” Evans said. “So, at this time, we're really just gathering data.”
The project has drawn some concerns, as the Blackfoot River, the valley and the communities have a complex history with mining and environmental degradation from previous projects. The project site is about three miles away from the proposed McDonald Mine site — a project that was shelved in the 1990s after a controversy that lead the state to ban cyanide heap leaching.
Evans said the Columbia project would be different and that they have no interest in using or attempting to overturn the cyanide ban. She said the company understands the community’s concerns.
“We're pretty positive and confident that we can show that you can do exploration in Montana and be environmentally sensitive and both can coexist,” she said. “We think it's really, really important that the people of Lincoln understand what our proposal is, and they have an opportunity to talk to us directly and share their concerns and thoughts. And some are really excited about it, some are not so much, and that's OK.”
Lincoln residents Toni Eckart and Connie McCafferty attended Tuesday’s meeting to learn more about the proposal.
“I’m here to find out what's going on,” McCafferty said. “I didn't know this was just a drilling application. I didn't know if we were going to start seeing a big open-pit mine out there, so we're just coming for information to find out what stage the mine is at.”
Both had questions about the project and said they were glad to hear more from the company and the others at the meeting. Both the DEQ and the Montana Mining Association brought representatives.
“I’m very interested in the environment, and I don't want anything to affect it negatively,” Eckart said. “I think that Lincoln can use some business coming in, as long as it stays healthy for all of us and for the environment.”
“I was really glad to see that all the different players are represented, including the Department of Environmental Quality, which is responsible for helping us keep our clean and healthful environment in Montana,” McCafferty said.
The DEQ is currently accepting public comment about the proposed exploration. Evans said, if they are approved to drill the 21 holes, the drilling itself would take four to six weeks. Next, she said, the company would analyze the results.
“We'll take the information, and it could take even years of desktop analysis to understand what that deposit looks like. There may need to be additional exploration. We just don't know until we gather the existing information that we're looking for,” she said. “One thing that's important for the public and the community to understand about exploration is that it takes years.”
Any future exploration or mining would need additional regulatory approval and public input. The DEQ is taking public comment about this proposed exploration until April 13.
“Well, I'm glad to know that they're not going to start open-pit mining next week, that right now it's just drilling holes,” McCafferty said. “I’m just interested in knowing more about it and being kept in the information loop.”
