Crown Resources, a fully owned subsidiary of Kinross Gold Corporation, submitted an Amended Plan of Operation to the regulatory agencies in February 2004. The new Plan is for an underground mine and cyanide leach mill and tailings pond with the ore transported in 100 trips down and up Marias Creek Road and the Kettle River Road to Kinross Gold formerly (Echo Bay Minerals), Key Mill near Republic.
The Washington State Department of Ecology has issued a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.(SEIS) for the proposed mine. The Forest Service issued a final Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and Record of Decision for the haul road and other facilities for the proposed mine on January 17, 2007.

Ecology has been issuing permits for the mine. OHA has appealed many of the permits the latest being the NPDES Waste Discharge premit. (See press release)

Time line

Background documents:
Forest Service EA for Buckhorn Mountain Access Road and Related Activities Project:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/oka/projects/buckhorn-mine/buckhorn.shtml

Sample comments regarding the Forest Service EA

EPA's comments regarding the Forest Service EA

draft Suppemental EIS and some supporting documentation are available at:
http://www.buckhornseis.com/

Sample Comments regarding the DSEIS

EPA's comments regarding the DSEIS

The agencies and the company can be reached at:

Water Rights (May 2006)

- The System Is Broken -

Please help us by expressing your outrage to Ecology.
Tell them these permit approvals are unacceptable.
Also please send a copy to Governor Gregoire so she knows what is going on too.

Tell Ecology
The Crown/Kinross plan is clearly not in the public interest. Let Ecology know we are watching and expect the agency to protect the public interest.
The proposed mine is expected to permanently impair senior water users and the hydrologic system that instream flows for fisheries depend on and the mitigation Crown/Kinross offers to offset these impacts would itself further degrade water quality. Ecology’s fragmentation of the decision making process will not alter the fact that the mine proposed by Crown/Kinross is fatally flawed.
As written, the construction storm water and air quality permits amount to self-monitoring, self-regulation, and self-enforcement. Essentially, Crown/Kinross is proposing that, if something happens, somebody will do something sometime. This is unacceptable. State enforcement would be essential. The state needs to take a proactive role in preventing heavy metals and sediments into groundwater and local streams. All discharges should be regulated under the more stringent NPDES permit. The current permit processing typifies the piecemeal, patchwork approach that sank BMG’s proposed Crown Jewel Mine and Crown/Kinross has tried to use during the entire review process. It won’t work on Buckhorn Mountain.

Jay Manning, Director,
Dept. of Ecology, PO Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504

Governor Christine Gregoire,
Governors Office Legislative Bldg.
Olympia, WA 98504