A mining company facing a potential lawsuit from the Nez Perce Tribe over pollution at a historic mining area in central Idaho says it has never mined the area and is denying the tribe’s allegations.
Midas Gold Corporation Thursday said more than a century of mining in the Stibnite area near the unincorporated town of Yellow Pine, about 3 miles west of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, is to blame for the pollution. The company wants to mine the area and says it will clean up the site if its plan for an open-pit gold mine is approved by federal authorities.
The Nez Perce Tribe on Wednesday issued a 60-day notice of its intent to sue the company for what it says are violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
The tribe alleges the company discharged arsenic and other heavy metals into the headwaters of the South Fork of the Salmon River. (AP, Lewiston Tribune)
