Both the J.R. Simplot Co. and Agrium Inc. plan to develop major new open pit mines in Southeast Idaho’s Caribou County, a region rich with phosphate ore used to feed their fertilizer plants near Pocatello and Soda Springs. Jeffrey Cundick, minerals branch chief in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Pocatello field office, said Simplot has submitted an application to the BLM for its new Dairy Syncline Mine, and Agrium is expected to turn in paperwork soon for its new Rasmussen Valley Mine.
Cundick, who has been responsible for the technical oversight of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest’s phosphate program for nine years, said because the BLM and U.S. Forest Service have made mine plan approvals more rigorous, phosphate companies have had to “front-load everything” and initiate their permitting processes well in advance of when they plan to actually open mining operations.
“The state-of-the-art mines we’re approving now are much different from the historic mines causing problems. That said, we have to remain vigilant. We have to monitor these sites,” Cundick said. “Once we approve mines, they don’t go away.”
Whereas a mining project once took a few years to approve, Environmental Impact Statements now must include sophisticated groundwater models and stringent strategies to prevent contamination from selenium and other toxic metals and minerals, Cundick said. That requires additional time to gather more data and ensure compliance. Companies also must factor in potential litigation delays.
Cundick said that federal agencies will soon announce an EIS public scoping process in regards to Simplot’s proposed Dairy Syncline project, most likely before the end of December. About 2,130 acres would be disturbed 10 miles east of Soda Springs, and 10 miles west of Simplot’s controversial Smoky Canyon Mine near Afton,Wyo. “They didn’t waste any time. They want to be proactive in the permitting process,” Cundick said of Simplot officials. “They’ve been exploring that property intermittently for seven years.”
In addition to the open pit mine, the Dairy Syncline Mine would include a new milling plant, an underground phosphate slurry, water lines, tailings impoundment, a new power line, a BLM land sale, and a Forest Service land exchange for private holdings. The mine’s ore reserves would last an estimated 25 years.
The BLM and the Forest Service have created an interdisciplinary team composed of biologists, archeologists, mining engineers, geologists, and an environmental contract consultant to scrutinize the Dairy Syncline project.
“Agrium has not submitted a proposal yet, but we expect that some time this fall,” Cundick said, noting it will comprise 680 acres of federal mineral leases that Agrium holds and wants to develop. Most of the land would be in the national forest, but the Blackfoot River Wildlife Management Area managed by Idaho Fish & Game would also be affected. “We’re really expecting it any time. They’ve been working on it intensively for two years,” Cundick said, referring to Agrium’s new mine application.
Canadian-based Agrium has “been doing their exploration drilling last year and this year. They are feverishly trying to delineate the body and put together a mine plan. It will be about one square mile of land.”
Nu-West Mining Inc. and Nu-West Industries Inc., subsidiaries of Agrium Inc., on Sept. 2 filed suit against the federal government in U.S. District Court (GM Sept. 7, p. 13) in Idaho to recover past and future selenium cleanup costs at four Dry Valley phosphate mine sites in Southeast Idaho’s Caribou County.
Nu-West now operates the Dry Valley and North Rasmussen Ridge mines north and east of Soda Springs, as well as the nearby Conda phosphate fertilizer plant, employing about 425 employees and contractors.
The Nu-West companies said they filed the civil action to recover costs incurred with the remediation of the South Maybe Canyon Mine, the North Maybe Mine, the Champ Mine and extension, and the Mountain Fuel Mine, which are about 15 miles east of Soda Springs.
“Agrium didn’t want all the leases in Dry Valley,” Cundick said. “The Nu-West lawsuit is limited to the historic Dry Valley projects operated by Agrium.”
While Agrium’s new Rasmussen Valley Mine would be far south of a deposit that lies on Rasmussen Ridge, it would be in the vicinity of the headwaters of the Blackfoot River, near where Lanes Creek and Diamond Creek converge. “The proximity to the river definitely presents additional permitting challenges,” Cundick said.
Agrium is winding down its Dry Valley Mine, which it acquired from FMC/Astaris about the time FMC shut down its Pocatello elemental phosphorus plant in December 2001. It is transitioning more fully into its North Rasmussen Ridge Mine, which the BLM approved in 2003. FMC mined the A and B panels there. Agrium finished the C panel and continues to work the D panel.
The BLM is mandated by Congress to issue mineral leases on national forests and ensure that the environment is protected from contamination. “Of course, there are a lot of problems that have developed from historic mining, but we have had good cooperation from the industry in rising to the challenge. They want to continue to operate here in Southeast Idaho,” Cundick said.
Simplot recently welcomed a U.S. Magistrate’s decision to deny a request by environmental groups to impose a permanent injunction that would block the expansion of Simplot’s Smoky Canyon Mine (GM Aug. 10, p. 13). The ruling gave Simplot the green light to proceed with the project, which will help ensure the continued supply of 1.5 million annual tons of phosphate ore to Simplot’s fertilizer plant near Pocatello and the employment of more than 500 workers at the plant and mine. Simplot said at the time that its phosphate reserves would be exhausted by 2010 if it were not allowed to expand onto two panels in the CaribouTarghee National Forest near the Idaho-Wyoming border. The expansion should provide ore for another 15 years. Simplot has been working on the development of the Smoky Canyon Mine for over nine years.