The CuMo Exploration Project aims to search for minerals that could lead to a mine years later in mountains outside Boise. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun)
For now, the CuMo Exploration Project is just that: Exploring, without full-scale mining operations.
The test project proposed by the Idaho Copper Corporation would be outside Idaho City, a town home to less than 700 people about 30 miles northeast of Boise.
A 2020 analysis found the project area could have deposits of silver and critical minerals used in renewable energy, national defense and last-ditch efforts to expand drinking water availability.
Environmental advocates worry the test project could taint headwaters that feed into the Boise River, and they are skeptical that regulators have fully identified possible impacts.
“Ultimately, responsible mining means that some places are too special to mine. And we think that the CuMo project cannot be developed — explored or developed — in a way that’s going to be adequately protective of the Boise River,” Idaho Conservation League Public Lands and Wildlife Director John Robison told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview. “Given the track record of mining, and of this scale and type of mining, it seems impossible to do both that and protect the Boise River for everyone who relies on it.”