On the boundary of Death Valley National Park in the Panamint Mountains, Canyon Resource’s Briggs mine currently threatens park, wilderness, Native American religious and biodiversity values. Based on its current exploration plans, it hopes to expand to the north. Great Basin Mine Watch, working with the Sierra Club and Timbisha Shoshone intend to stop this expansion.

When it comes to mine exploration, the 1872 Mining Law is even worse than it is for mining. Essentially, it says that all lands of the U.S., unless withdrawn from entry, are open to exploration. While they are required to obey all environmental laws, the Bureau of Land Management treats exploration plans of less than 5 acres of disturbance per year as notices which means essentially that all a company must do is “notice” the BLM that they will be conducting exploration in an area. Larger exploration proposals do require an environmental assessment.

Briggs’ proposes to disturb closer to 200 acres which suggests that they are fairly close to announcing a significant discovery. However, the proposal will disturb lands over several sections, or square miles, of land. While the actual disturbed area is not huge, by fragmenting habitat an exploration plan such as this will actually impact thousands of acres.

Canyon Resources owns the Briggs Mine. Its’ environmental record indicates that it is not the a company that should be allowed to operate on the boundary of Death Valley. As reported by Helena Independent Record, Canyon Resources defaulted on a bond at the CR Kendall Mine north of Livingston, Montana. The State of Nevada held a $1.9 million bond at the Kendall Mine, but their Dept. Of Environmental Quality estimated the mine would cost $14.2 million to clean up. They also reported that having forfeited such a large bond, it will become more difficult to get bonding for the Briggs Mine.

Unfortunately, the bond held by Canyon at the Briggs Mine is currently illegal because it is based on mining claims they hold in Montana. As quoted in reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission:

“The Briggs Mine operates under a number of permits issued by state, local and federal agencies. Moreover, the Company was required to post a $3.03 million reclamation bond to ensure appropriate reclamation and a $1.01 million bond to ensure adequate funds to mitigate any "foreseeable release" of pollutants to state waters. The Company also maintains a $0.144 million reclamation bond for exploration at the Briggs Mine. Surety bonds at the Briggs Mine are partially collateralized as follows: (i) $0.1 million held directly by the Surety; (ii) a bank Letter of Credit in the amount of $0.2 million which is collateralized with cash; and (iii) a security interest in 28,000 acres of real property mineral interests in Montana. In addition, the Company has agreed to make additional cash deposits with the Surety totaling $1.5 million over a three year period at the rate of $0.5 million per year, commencing June 30, 2001.” (Canyon Resources 10-K Filing for 2000, page 10, emphases added.)

The total bond at Briggs is $4.04 million including its $3.03 million reclamation bond and $1.01 million water quality bond. Based on the SEC filing, there was only $0.3 million in cash on this bond at the end of June, 2001. While not specified in the filings, the 28,000 acres in Montana is believed to be the McDonald and Seven-up Pete properties.It is probable that the 28,000 acres of Montana mineral interests are worthless because of the ban on the use of cyanide in Montana.

This bond is illegal under the new mining regulations promulgated by the BLM at the end of 2000. Even though they have repealed many of the Clinton regulations, they have kept the bonding portion of the regulations. Great Basin Mine Watch calls on the BLM to enforce its new regulations immediately and force Canyon Resources to post an adequate bond for this site. Recently, we filed a Freedom of Information Act request regarding this bond.