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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

State denies two mineral leases for mining firm

Betsy Z. Russell Staff writer

BOISE – Idaho’s top elected officials agreed unanimously Tuesday to deny two mineral leases sought by Jonathan Swift Mining Co. for minerals in the Coeur d’Alene River within a Superfund site.

The firm, whose principals include several North Idaho mining company officials, applied for mineral leases on state-owned riverbeds in two locations – 61 acres near Dudley in Kootenai County and 35 acres near Harrison Slough in Shoshone County. It sought permission to mine for lead, zinc and silver, all from underwater.

The state Land Board’s staff recommended denying the applications.

“Have we had conversations with the people up north to determine what their real intention is here?” asked state Controller Keith Johnson, a member of the Land Board.

State Lands Director Winston Wiggins responded, “My only conversations … the company believed they could remove these sediments and simultaneously make a profit from these sediments while cleaning up the river. … It seems a little bit out of the realm of realism that that could be possible.”

But Wiggins said that if there’s new technology that allows that without affecting water quality in the Superfund site, and if the Environmental Protection Agency signs off on that, the firm could always reapply.

The DEQ sent a letter noting that if the state authorized mineral leases in the Bunker Hill Superfund site, it could become a “potentially responsible party” for pollution there and be held jointly and severally liable for all cleanup in the site – retroactively.

The letter also noted that the application included “no information on how the mining is proposed to be accomplished, particularly how it will be done without violating water quality standards.”

Lee Haynes, a principal in the firm, told state lawmakers in early March that the firm didn’t want to dredge up the sediments, but it figured government agencies would do so as part of the Superfund cleanup of the Coeur d’Alene Basin. If so, the company wanted to process the ore to get metals from it, he said.

However, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe said they had no plans to dredge the basin, and said doing so would disturb heavy metals encased in sediments and release them into the environment.

Haynes and Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, pushed for HB 60, legislation to authorize mineral leases on state lands for tailings and dumps, rather than just for naturally occurring minerals. The bill passed the House, but died in a Senate committee.

On Tuesday, the Land Board was told that Swift just wants to mine sediments that are below the ordinary high water mark in the river – not tailings that have piled up along the banks. But there was still little interest. Without comment, the Land Board voted unanimously to deny the leases.