Public comment underway on Mojave Precious Metals new exploratory plan
BlM to accept input through aug. 30
The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments on Mojave Precious Metals’ second round of exploratory drilling on Conglomerate Mesa.
The proposed exploratory work would involve upgrading about seven miles of existing roads to deliver equipment and personnel to 30 drill pads that would be located in the road footprint. Four drill holes could be drilled on each drill pad, for a total of 120 exploratory core drill holes, with a maximum depth of just under 1,000 feet. No new roads would be constructed and the total amount of land disturbed by the drilling program would be 12 acres, according to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The Ridgecrest BLM Office is taking public comments as part of the “scoping” process that could eventually lead to development of a draft Environmental Assessment of the MPM exploratory work.
The public would have a chance to also comment on any future environmental documents created under the terms of the federal National Environmental Policy Act
If approved, the exploratory work would be the second drilling operation undertaken by Mojave Precious Metals (MPM).
The company is working to determine the amount of recoverable gold on its 2,424 acres of valid federal mining claims on Conglomerate Mesa, a 22,000-acre swath of federal land in the Inyo Mountains southeast of the former silver camp of Cerro Gordo and on the fringe of Death Valley National Park.
A coalition of local, regional and national environmental groups and tribal representatives opposed the first round of exploratory work and is urging people to comment on the second round in an effort to convince the BLM to deny or severely curtail the second round of drilling. While the groups decried the drilling program, they also attacked any plans to eventually create a cyanide heap leach field mine on Conglomerate Mesa. Officials from MPM said any decision on a future
mine on the site would not be made for several years.
The area is the ancestral home of the Paiute Shoshone and Panamint Shoshone people and both local tribes opposed previous exploratory efforts dating to the 1980s and the current project by MPM. “Conglomerate Mesa is a sacred landscape to the indigenous people of this area,” said Kathy Bancroft, historic preservation officer for the Lone Pine Paiute Shoshone Tribe. “We have an obligation to … stand in opposition to this project every step of the way,” she said in a press release from the Conglomerate Mesa Coalition (CMC), which includes the Friends of the Inyo, the Sierra Club and other organizations.
The CMC press release said the work is “threatening rare desert plants,” such as the Inyo rock daisy and the Badger Flat thread-plant. The area also contains Joshua trees, which are a candidate to be listed under the California Endangered Species Act. In the CMC press release, Ileene Anderson with the Center for Biological Diversity, said Conglomerate Mesa is a “stronghold for western Joshua trees as climate change advances.” The press release also predicted Joshua trees
“would likely be impacted” by any roadwork by MPM.
In a scoping presentation on the project, the BLM noted, “there are no animals or plants on the site listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act or the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).” But since the state of California designated the Joshua tree as a candidate species, they will be “protected under the CESA. The area of exploration drilling does not include high density stands of Joshua trees and impacts to individual trees would be avoided or mitigated.”
The CMC and the BLM seem to have different definitions of “new roads.” The BLM states in numerous instances that no “new roads” would be part of the exploratory plan, but the CMC press release states the project would result in “nearly three miles of new roads.”
The BLM presentation notes, “Surface disturbance would be limited as the project extensively utilizes prior exploration footprints. … Portions of existing reclaimed exploration roadway created by BHP in 2000 are proposed to be reopened for additional drilling. … The proposed planned footprint of surface disturbance is largely consistent with a 2016 proposal that received full review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in an Environmental Assessment.”
That proposal, the Perdito Project, came from Silver Standard US Holdings, Inc. Mojave Precious Metals purchased Silver Standards mining claims and the approved exploratory drilling plan. Prior to that project, Newmont Mining and BHP built about seven miles of access roads and completed test drilling on 85 sites on Conglomerate Mesa in the 1980s and 1990s.
Regarding artifacts, historic or cultural sites, especially those important to the Paiute people, the BLM scoping overview noted “a cultural survey was completed for the project in accordance with BLM requirements.” If any resources are found that are not in the various surveys, MPM employees and contractors are mandated to leave the discover “intact pending a determination by the BLM.”
The MPM Operations Plan, scoping presentation and a portal that can be used to submit comments, can by found at https://eplanning.blm. gov/eplanning-ui/project/2013863/570.
Comments will be accepted until Aug. 30, 2021.