Mining company to explore Bitterroot rare-earth deposit

The deposit also contains lanthanum, cerium, europium, gallium, niobium, yttrium, scandium, dysprosium, strontium and gadolinium, according to the company. The elements are often found in conjunction with thorium, a radioactive element. U.S. Critical Materials states that there’s not enough thorium at Sheep Creek to require permitting from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The site along Sheep Creek, a tributary to the West Fork Bitterroot River just north of the Idaho-Montana state line, sits about 13 miles south of Painted Rocks State Park and about 36 miles south of Darby. 

Ed Cowle, director of U.S. Critical Materials, said in a March 8 interview that the company is also exploring a separate, unspecified location in Montana for rare-earth deposits — a place that so far had “not come on the radar” of other companies. As of March 8, he said, the company planned to stake claims in that area this spring. “It’ll be in Montana but it’ll not be where we are,” he said, referring to the company’s existing Sheep Creek claims. 

The continued exploration at Sheep Creek comes as the federal government is pushing to increase domestic production of elements that power the so-called “green economy” of renewable energy and electric vehicles. U.S. Critical Materials touts the 9% total rare-earth oxide composition of the Sheep Creek deposit as the richest such deposit in the U.S. with a multibillion-dollar value.

Cowle said 10–15 people would be employed this summer, but wasn’t sure how many people a possible future mine might employ. 

“The high-grade rare-earth indications together with the low thorium readings are a unique combination,” James Hedrick, the company’s president, said in a statement. “I believe that U.S. Critical Materials Corp. has the potential to be a top U.S. rare-earth producer.”

Some local environmental groups and residents are wary of the environmental impacts of a mine. People concerned about the project have questioned how mining and ore processing will be conducted, and wondered whether the Sheep Creek deposit contains the same form of asbestos that killed hundreds of people in Libby and contaminated the landscape. Rare-earth mining typically involves excavation of ore-bearing earth followed by chemical leaching in on-site ponds, or by pumping leaching chemicals through pipes directly into the ore beds. 

Grizzly bear researcher and consultant Mike Bader and groups including Friends of the Bitterroot have expressed concern about the impacts of a mining operation amid overlapping conservation concerns. The Sheep Creek site sits at the headwaters of the West Fork Bitterroot River, which is critical habitat for endangered bull trout. The site is adjacent to the Bluejoint Wilderness Study Area and it partially overlaps the Allan Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area. And, they say, the location is critical for facilitating connectivity for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and Bitterroot Ecosystem. 

Bader wrote in a March 23 guest column in the Missoulian that Sheep Creek is “about the worst place for extensive mining operations.”

“The Bitterroot National Forest and USCMC must realize they will be held to the highest possible scrutiny on every aspect of this process,” he wrote. “Fast-tracking is unacceptable, even for ‘green energy’ projects.”