Mining company to submit new W. Bitterroot plan
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) The Bitterroot National Forest on Monday said that a mining company that owns mineral rights near the West Fork of the Bitterroot River has rescinded its draft plan for exploration of the Sheep Creek Project in order to submit a revised proposal by the end of April.
US Critical Materials had submitted a draft plan of operations on Dec. 5, just a few weeks after it learned that the Federal Permitting Council had selected the Sheep Creek Project for FAST-41 permitting on Nov. 19.
Congress passed the FAST Act in 2015 to streamline the approval of federal transportation projects. But a year ago, the Trump administration started using the FAST Act to fast-track critical-mineral mining projects by limiting environmental review and reducing permitting requirements as part of Trump's American Energy Dominance program.
The Sheep Creek Project is one of five mining operations in Montana that have received FAST-41 permitting. As part of the FAST-41 program, the federal government provides US Critical Materials with insider advice and aid, including a project advisor to help with the permitting process and access to top agency managers including the Office of Management and Budget director and the Council on Environmental Quality chairman. With input from these federal sources, US Critical Minerals may be changing its plan of operations to increase its exploration and mining efforts beyond what was previously allowed with fewer environmental restrictions.
The draft operations plan submitted in December described how US Critical Materials would reopen and improve three historical adits, or horizontal mine openings, near the confluence of Sheep Creek and the West Fork of the Bitterroot River. Adits 1 and 2 are part of the old Sheep Creek Columbite Mine just east of Forest Service Road 5677 before it joins with the West Fork Road. Farther east along FS Road 5677 before it does a hairpin turn over Sheep Creek, Adit 3 is part of the old SE SW Section 3 Mine along an ephemeral stream that feeds into Sheep Creek.
The plan says Adits 1 and 3 are the company’s focus, but all adits would be enlarged to 12 feet by 12 feet to facilitate modern underground extraction equipment. A new adit, Adit 4, would be excavated near Adit 1 to provide underground access to Adit 3.
According to the Dec. 5 plan, underground development will focus on widening and installing ground support for the underground drilling program. A combination of drilling and extraction activities will take place during the first year of exploration planning, and additional plans will be made through the course of the program based on the exploration findings.
Water use and possible contamination causes the greatest concern for Montanans worried about the Bitterroot River. According to the Dec. 5 plan, groundwater collected in the adits will be used. A sump system in the adits would capture groundwater for drilling and exploration activities “with the plan to have a zero-discharge operation.” An underground water reservoir will be constructed with a capacity of approximately 15,000 gallons.
If additional water is required, “a source such as Sheep Creek, or the West Fork of the Bitterroot River to supplement activities underground would be needed,” according to the Dec. 5 plan.
During a public meeting in Hamilton on Dec. 1, hundreds of Ravalli County residents asked the county commissioners to send a letter to the Trump administration asking that the Sheep Creek mine be removed from the federal Fast-41 list. When the Forest Service released the draft plan a few weeks later, community members said the plan was already more expansive than what US Critical Materials had described on Dec. 1.
“In the meeting, (US Critical Minerals) described “expanded exploration” with minimal trucking, no water withdrawal from Sheep Creek, and a low-impact footprint,” said Philip Ramsey in an email. “The plan does not address how risks would be evaluated and managed. There is no discussion of protocols for how they will test for and handle potential contaminants associated with this deposit and this geology, including radioactive elements, arsenic, lead, and asbestos. There continues to be no community engagement from (the company).”
According to the FAST-41 permitting timeline, the Forest Service had just begun analyzing the draft operations plan and would have finished by March 2027, with project approval expected by May 2027. Because US Critical Materials has withdrawn the plan, the permitting timetable will be adjusted to reflect the delay.
In Monday’s Forest Service announcement, West Fork District Ranger Dan Pliley said that once he receives the revised operations plan, the Forest Service would “conduct a completeness review to determine if the proposal is sufficient to conduct environmental analysis.”
The 7-square-mile Sheep Creek Columbite Deposit Mine Site lies in the headwaters of the Bitterroot River, approximately 38 miles south of Darby and 20 miles southwest of Lost Trail Pass. Deposits of rare-earth metals were discovered in the area in 1953, and the site has been studied and sampled since the early 1960s.
“Rare earth elements,” are 17 elements dubbed “heavy metals” that have various electronic and magnetic properties that make them useful in an ever-expanding array of electronic components, magnetic materials, lasers, industrial processes and rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles.
After some initial exploration in 2022, U.S. Critical Materials Corp. announced in January 2023 that it had discovered “the highest-grade (rare-earth element) deposit in the United States” among its 223 mining claims near Sheep Creek.
In May 2023, the Bitterroot National Forest announced that U.S. Critical Materials and U.S. Critical Metals Corp. had sent a Notice of Intent that they would continue exploring for rare-earth elements on their Sheep Creek claim.
U.S. Critical Metals Corp. was incorporated in July 2019 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by Darren Collins, and U.S. Critical Materials Corp., a related interest, was incorporated in Nevada on April 20, 2021.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.