Mining company agrees to watershed protections
Saturday, August 16, 2008 10:23 PM PDT
BOISE (AP) — An environmental group has agreed with a mining company not to challenge a proposed cobalt mine in central Idaho as long as the company does other work to enhance the upper Salmon River watershed.
The Idaho Conservation League and Formation Capital Corp. of Vancouver, British Columbia, on Monday plan to release details of the agreement, called the Conservation Action Program.
‘‘The Idaho Conservation League has been actively reviewing this project for mining in a highly impacted site and we will continue to do so,’’ Rick Johnson, executive director of the environmental group, said. ‘‘They say they can mine a strategic material and still be a good environmental neighbor. Our agreement will help them prove it.’’
The company wants to mine in an area about 21 miles east of Salmon. Cobalt is used to make hybrid cars, fighter jets and gas turbines. Plans call for extracting 800 tons of rock daily from beneath public land. The U.S. Forest Service in June approved the project with conditions, including requiring the company to post bonds to pay for potential cleanup costs. The agreement with the environmental group calls for the company to do more.
‘‘Formation Capital is pleased to join with the Idaho Conservation League in announcing the creation of the Conservation Action Program to implement projects to further enhance and improve natural resource, environmental and wildlife resources and values in the Upper Salmon River watershed,’’ said Mari-Ann Green, the company’s chief executive operator.
