Perpetua Resources Completes Initial Stream Diversion Activities Contributing to Water Quality Improvements at Historic Mine Site

Perpetua Resources Corp. announced the summer 2022 field program to initiate water quality improvements in the historical Stibnite mining district is complete. After 100 years of mining activity, the millions of tons of unconstrained tailings and mine waste left behind by previous operators has been degrading water quality for decades. Perpetua was granted permission to take action to address the most pressing water quality concerns through an agreement signed in 2021 between the Company, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”).

 

The 2022 field program included:

• Lining and improving the existing Hennessy Creek diversion channel around the Northwest Bradley Waste Rock Dumps to prevent leakage into the dumps and the resulting uptake of metals.
• Removing legacy waste from the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (“DMEA”) waste rock dump from within and along a tributary to the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River and restoring the original streamflow course.
• Creating a lined diversion for surface water that previously contacted with legacy contamination around Smelter Flats, the former mill and smelter site used by past operators.

The next environmental improvements are expected to include the relocation of at least 325,000 tons of historical tailings and mine waste away from the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River in 2023. 

“We did not create the contamination that has degraded water quality in the historic Stibnite Mining District for decades, but are committed to be part of the solution,” said Laurel Sayer, CEO of Perpetua Resources. “Isolating streams away from historically contaminated material is a first step in fulfilling our goal of leaving the area better than it is today and demonstrates that responsible partnerships with private industry can benefit the environment and people of Idaho.” 

Perpetua worked with the EPA and the USDA for more than three years to receive permission to conduct time critical, early action cleanup activities. In 2021, Perpetua Resources, the EPA and USDA signed an Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent, giving Perpetua the opportunity to voluntarily clean up key areas of the historical Stibnite mining district that would not otherwise be remedied by the additional legacy restoration proposed in the Stibnite Gold Project. Phase One of the Agreement provides a four-year period to conduct “time critical” cleanup actions designed to improve water quality. The remaining phases in the Agreement would allow for a more comprehensive remediation of the historical mining district should the Stibnite Gold Project receive permission to proceed upon conclusion of the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) review.

Perpetua Resources Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is focused on the exploration, site restoration and redevelopment of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho that are encompassed by the Stibnite Gold Project.  The Project is one of the highest-grade, open pit gold deposits in the United States and is designed to apply a modern, responsible mining approach to restore an abandoned mine site and produce both gold and the only mined source of antimony in the United States. Further advancing Perpetua Resources’ ESG and sustainable mining goals, the Project will be powered by the lowest carbon emissions grid in the nation and a portion of the antimony produced from the Project will be supplied to Ambri, a US-based company commercializing a low-cost liquid metal battery essential for the low-carbon energy transition.

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