Shoshone hopes to expand Lakeview mine

SANDPOINT — Owners of a gold and silver mine at Lakeview have upgraded their operations and are hoping to expand production.

“We would like to get the mill operating at full capacity,” said JoAnn Corley, mining engineer for the Shoshone Silver Company’s Lakeview project.

Corley said the mining project’s refurbished mill near the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille is processing about 50 tons per day and Shoshone intends on eventually boosting milling operations to 300 tons.

But Shoshone’s project is facing questions and regulatory hurdles.

The project off Forest Service Road No. 278 came under closer scrutiny after federal inspectors discovered improperly stored barrels of cyanide at the site in July 2008.

Six 40-gallon barrels contained sodium cyanide and three of them had open lids, according to a U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration citation. Crystallization was discovered on the outside of the containers and the contents were exposed to moisture and rain.

Water combined with sodium cyanide can produce lethal hydrogen cyanide gas, inspection records noted.

The citation further indicated the barrels were either missing labels or illegibly marked and employees were unaware of the

barrels’ contents. Dead birds were also observed nearby.

Corley said the MSHA inspection coincided with Shoshone’s renovation of the mill. The company discovered the barrels prior to the inspection and had them set aside in a containment basin so the contents could be put into properly marked containers, she said.

But the MSHA inspector turned up before the re-barreling could be done, according to Corley, who emphasized the unused cyanide reagent was left over from previous operations at the mine.

Shoshone immediately corrected the problem, but questions about the operations at Lakeview have persisted.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has no record of Lakeview’s mill being registered or approved for processing of ore by cyanidation.

Bruce Schuld, DEQ’s Mine Waste Projects coordinator in Boise, advised Shoshone last month to cease any use or disposal of cyanide at Lakeview, but company officials have since clarified that the cyanide was a remnant from historic operations.

Corley insists Shoshone is not processing ore through the mill’s cyanide leaching circuit, which is a closed system.

Corley said the barrels are destined for a specialized hazardous materials facility in Washington state, a move Schuld is applauding.

“We’re really happy about that,” Schuld said. “They were wanting to make sure that they had a plan in place for doing this right instead of doing it willy-nilly.”

But the scenario at Lakeview remains disquieting to the Idaho Conservation League. The conservation group points out that mishandled toxic chemicals pose a threat to groundwater and nearby Gold Creek, which is vital habitat for endangered bull trout.

Along with the barrels, documents from last year’s federal inspection indicated stormwater controls were lacking around stockpiled ore. Three large fuel tanks near the mill had no backup containment measures and the ground around them smelled of diesel fuel, inspection records said.

“It just doesn’t look good,” said Susan Drumheller, Idaho Conservation League’s northern Idaho associate.

The project has also run into a permitting snag with Bonner County.

Shoshone Silver maintains the mining operations at Lakeview date back to the late 1800s, more than a century before county land use codes were enacted. However, the regulatory exemption for vintage surface mines in the county expires if operations are idle for three or more years, said Planning Director Clare Marley.

Marley said she’s still awaiting additional documentation showing the mine’s grandfather status has not lapsed.

“I have not yet had what I considered to be crystal-clear evidence that it is grandfathered,” she said.

The unresolved local permitting question has thrown a hitch into Shoshone’s submittal of a site-reclamation plan with the Idaho Department of Lands. The reclamation plan is necessary for the project’s expansion.

“They requested that it be suspended until they straightened out their issues with the county,” said Jim Brady, a senior lands resource specialist with IDL’s Pend Oreille supervisory area.

Corley, meanwhile, is confident Shoshone will surmount the obstacles so the project can expand, take on more employees and stimulate the economy in Bonner and Kootenai counties.

 “We’re trying to get things done the responsible way,” she said.