Progress of mining and exploration in Idaho: An update on the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program from the Idaho Geological Survey

By Virginia S. Gillerman, Claudio Berti, and Reed S. Lewis, Idaho Geological Survey

Idaho mining operations in 2019 improved from the previous year (2018), with several advanced exploration drilling projects, a new gold mine, and a new phosphate mine in development at year’s end.

In Northern Idaho, miners from the Lucky Friday were voting on a tentative settlement for their strike against Hecla Mining Company. The Galena mine, owned by Americas Gold and Silver Corporation, was producing, and this company announced a new investment agreement to modernize the mine’s infrastructure. New Jersey’s Golden Chest mine at Murray produced gold from surface and underground, and a Finnish company, Endomines, was opening a small underground gold mine near Elk City. Open pit mining at the three large phosphate mines in Southeastern Idaho continued as usual. The Bureau of Land Management approved the new Caldwell Canyon phosphate project of Bayer, who purchased Monsanto last year, and a Final Environmental Impact Statement for mining at Simplot’s Dairy Syncline property was released in November. In addition, Oakley stone quarries and aggregate operations had a busy year.

Drilling near the RAM deposit at Jervois Mining’s Idaho cobalt operation.

Mineral exploration remained active, particularly in regard to precious metals, though activity at grass-roots projects was down slightly. With a decrease in cobalt prices since last year, only two projects in the Cobalt Belt had significant work. Jervois Mining acquired the Idaho cobalt project from eCobalt and continued pre-mine construction activity, engineering studies, and exploration drilling. First Cobalt was working on resource calculations and geological modelling at the Iron Creek Cu-Co deposit. Midas Gold’s Stibnite project was in NEPA permitting for a new Au-Sb mine in Valley County. Major drill programs were in progress by Revival Gold on the Beartrack and Arnett Creek properties in Lemhi County, by Integra Resources at the DeLamar and Florida Mountain epithermal Au-Ag deposits in Owyhee County, and by Liberty Gold at the Black Pine gold project in Cassia County. Smaller exploration projects were scattered around the state at Murray, Mackay, Kilgore, and South Mountain, where Be- Metals drilled high-grade zinc mineralization in a polymetallic skarn.

Mineral Property File scan progress.

Since 2007, the Idaho Geological Survey (IGS) has been involved in the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program (NGGDPP). This effort is resulting in a vast digital repository of over 13,000 documents from the IGS Mineral Property Files collection (MPF), that is serviced through an interactive web map application on the IGS website (www.idahogeology.org/webmap). To date, approximately 75 percent of the MPF has been digitally acquired and made available to the public. The newly updated version of the database is also available for download at no cost (publication DD-1 Database of the Mines and Prospects of Idaho - version 1.2018.1) (www.idahogeology.org/product/ dd-1). Recent efforts have been focused in including into the digital archive material from the IGS videotape collection and the creation of a You Tube channel to host clip for streaming.