Spring Peak Mining Update

Spring Peak mining update

On November 24 BHCP conducted a site visit to Spring Peak to assess the drilling progress. At the Forest Service road access off of Highway 176 there was a large staging area with multiple trucks, a 700-gallon water tank, drilling infrastructure materials including concrete and chemicals as well as a plastic hose (see photos). On our way up to the drill sites, we ran into the subcontractors for OceanaGold who told us they were pulling all the materials off of the project at the direction of the company because the freezing temperatures were not conducive to pumping water for the drilling operations. The subcontractors from Mina, NV explained they had to dump 700 gallons of water (the water was obtained from Hawthorn, NV) and spend several days pulling the hose and transporting the supplies to storage. Because of the limited operating period for sage grouse, identified in the Spring Peak Plan of Operations, drilling will not be able to resume until the end of July. The staging area and several other locations off of the Forest road had damage to vegetation and trash (see photos) was observed in the area. Activities and violations were reported to the Forest Service.