Latest news with #ofDecision
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Major milestone' in creation of 2nd Las Vegas airport as feds take initial step
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Clark County officials said the federal government has begun the process that could bring a second major airport to the Las Vegas area. In a social media post on X, Rosemary Vassiliadis, Clark County aviation director, said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are moving forward, issuing a Notice of Intent to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport (SNSA). She called it 'a major milestone in our region's aviation future.' Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas is ranked as the No. 8 busiest airport in the U.S., just behind Orlando and ahead of Charlotte. Officials have been working for years to address the need, which has focused on the Ivanpah Valley, along Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and the California state line. 'This important step brings us closer to addressing the increasing demand for air travel in one of the nation's fastest growing regions,' according to Vassiliadis's statement, posted on the @LASairport account on X. 'As a second commercial airport, SNSA will add much-needed capacity, improve service reliability, and ensure Southern Nevada continues to thrive as a global destination for business and tourism. We know the crucial role we play in the region, and SNSA represents the future of economic vitality for all the communities we service.' The site could see enormous growth, but questions about water availability and conflicts with endangered species habitat — the desert tortoise — will have to be addressed in the environmental analysis of the project. 'More than 25 years in the making, we thank our federal delegation, the FAA, BLM, Clark County Board of County Commissioners and countless partners who have supported this project. This is a pivotal step for our region, and upon receiving a favorable Record of Decision, we are committed to building an airport that supports the long-term growth of our region,' Vassiliadis said. Vassiliadis was appointed to her position in 2013. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Business Wire
22-04-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Hecla's Libby Exploration Project Selected for FAST-41 Critical Minerals Dashboard by the Trump Administration
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) is pleased to announce that its Libby Exploration Project in Montana was included in the Trump Administration's March 18, 2025, announcement of advancing critical mineral projects under Executive Order 14241, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production. As a result, the Project has been placed on the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council's FAST-41 permitting dashboard, which will ensure the environmental review and authorizations schedule for the project is publicly available and allows all stakeholders to benefit from increased transparency. 'We're pleased that the Libby Exploration Project has been recognized in the White House's critical minerals initiative and added to the FAST-41 dashboard. This priority status acknowledges the strategic importance of developing domestic silver and copper resources and should help streamline the remaining permitting process as we move toward a final Record of Decision. Hecla also extends its thanks to Montana's congressional delegation for their leadership in showing strong support for the Project and encouraging domestic mineral production and investment in Montana,' said Rob Krcmarov, President and CEO. 'Having a fully permitted project would add significant optionality to our portfolio, and this milestone positions us well for the future. While we continue to evaluate the project economics and address technical challenges, this designation enhances the project's long-term potential. As always, our capital allocation decisions will remain disciplined and focused on delivering shareholder value while we advance our understanding of this significant resource.' The Trump Administration's announcement may be found here: The Project link on the FAST-41 dashboard is here: Hecla's Libby Exploration Project is a large silver and copper deposit located 50 miles from the Company's Lucky Friday mine. A Plan of Operations is currently under an Environmental Assessment review by the U.S. Forest Service, and upon successful completion of that process, and if subsequent data collection and analysis activities suggest development of a mine is feasible, then a new Plan of Operations for the construction and development of a mine at the Libby Exploration site would be submitted for approval. ABOUT HECLA Founded in 1891, Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) is the largest silver producer in the United States and Canada. In addition to operating mines in Alaska, Idaho, and Quebec, Canada, the Company is developing a mine in the Yukon, Canada, and owns a number of exploration and pre-development projects in world-class silver and gold mining districts throughout North America. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements. This news release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections and other applicable laws, including Canadian securities laws. Words such as 'may', 'will', 'should', 'expects', 'intends', 'projects', 'believes', 'estimates', 'targets', 'anticipates' and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include the possibility of submitting a new Plan of Operations for the Libby Exploration Project and subsequently constructing a mine. For a detailed discussion of risks and other factors impacting these forward-looking statements, see the Company's 2024 Form 10-K filed on February 13, 2025. The Company undertakes no obligation and has no intention of updating forward-looking statements other than as may be required by law.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Feds Planning to Gather Whole Herds of Free-Roaming Horses in Checkerboard Region of Wyoming
The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment for its plan to gather and remove more than 3,000 wild horses from a checkerboarded region of Wyoming that covers around 2 million acres. Those roundups would start in July, and they would be the first step toward permanently removing two herds and a portion of a third herd in the southwestern part of the state near Rock Springs. The roundups could be delayed, however, as the legal battle over Southwest Wyoming's free-roaming horse herds goes back more than a decade. The BLM now finds itself trying to balance conflicting mandates for wild horse management while simultaneously defending its plan from legal challenges. The updated plan for the BLM's Rock Springs and Rawlings Field Offices was first announced by the agency in a 2023 Record of Decision. In that announcement, the agency said the amended plan was spurred by a 2013 settlement with a local grazing group, and that it sought to resolve conflicts between public and private land sections within the checkerboarded area. The key amendments to the plan focused on four Herd Management Areas that fall within the checkerboard and are overseen by the two field offices. HMAs are designated areas where the BLM tries to manage a sustainable number of horses and burros while keeping rangelands healthy for other uses, like recreation and grazing. Under the new plan, the Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin HMAs would be eliminated and managed for zero horses going forward. The Adobe Town HMA would be allowed to persist, but with a much smaller population goal of around 225 to 450 horses. Because of the current populations of the three HMAs — around 1,125 in Salt Wells Creek, 737 in Great Divide Basin, and 2,438 in Adobe Town — meeting these goals would require the removal of an estimated 3,371 horses over a period of several years. The new plan also mentions the White Mountain HMA, which would be managed as a 'non-reproducing' herd going forward, with a target population of 205 wild horses. A coalition of wild-horse advocacy groups filed two lawsuits against the BLM in response to its 2023 ROD. A U.S. District Court Judge ruled in the BLM's favor in August 2024, but the groups appealed that decision. Their appeal is still pending in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to WyoFile. 'This is just the latest lawsuit in a 12 or more year legal battle to save these horses. We've litigated four or five times about this issue,' Suzanne Roy, executive director of American Wild Horse, told the Wyoming news outlet Tuesday. Roy said she was optimistic about their appeal, since they 'have prevailed in the 10th Circuit previously on this issue.' Roy added that if the BLM's plan does move forward, it would be the first time the agency removed wild horses or burros from a landscape without demonstrating ecological reasons for the roundups. (Competition with native wildlife, damages to vegetation, and other negative impacts to local ecosystems are often cited as the primary reasons for removing the non-native grazers.) She claimed it could also set a dangerous precedent across the West by allowing private landowners to dictate the presence of free-roaming horses on a shared landscape. The BLM did not immediately respond to a request for comment in response to Roy's claims or to confirm other details about its plans. Wild horse management is inherently controversial in the West. But the 'issue' that Roy alludes to is complicated further by the unique checkerboard landscape in Southwest Wyoming, where public and private parcels interlock in a checkerboard pattern, and by the BLM's conflicting management mandates under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act. Section 3 of the Act directs the BLM to protect and properly manage wild, free-roaming horses and burros on public lands where they were present at the time the Act became law. While Section 4 requires the BLM to remove wild, free-roaming horses and burros that stray onto private land at the landowner's request. 'This dual mandate is difficult to implement in the checkerboard where every other section of land is private, and wild horses constantly drift between private and public land,' the BLM explained in the ROD. Read Next: Beasts of Burden: Wild Horses and Burros Are Dying Hard Deaths in the West In the past, the BLM was able to manage wild horses on the aforementioned HMAs because the Rock Springs Grazing Association allowed the horses to be there. As the largest private landowner in the checkerboard area, the local ranching group consented to the presence of up to 500 horses when the HMAs were first established. But in 2010, the RSGA withdrew that consent, citing the unchecked growth of horse populations as the primary reason, according to the BLM. The RSGA subsequently sued the agency in 2011 for failing to remove the wild horses quickly enough. This led to a 2013 settlement, or 'consent decree,' requiring the BLM to amend its management plan within the checkerboard, which spurred the creation of the current plan that is now accepting public comment. That comment period closes April 30.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Conservation groups file lawsuit challenging approval of Central Idaho's Stibnite Gold Mine
An overhead view of the abandoned Yellow Pine Pit at the Stibnite Mine, which Perpetua Resources hopes to resume mining in. (Clark Corbin/Idaho Capital Sun) Several conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service in U.S. District Court on Tuesday challenging the recent approval of a gold mine located adjacent to the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Central Idaho. In early January, the U.S. Forest Service issued a final record of decision approving the Stibnite Gold Project. A company called Perpetua Resources – formerly known as Midas Gold – has plans to resume mining for gold, silver and a chemical element called antimony at the Stibnite Gold Mine, which is located in Valley County near the tiny town of Yellow Pine. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Mining at the site dates to the late 1800s, and metal mined at Stibnite contributed to the World War II effort. But after all mining ceased by the 1990s, the mine's former owners abandoned the open pit mine, polluting the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River with arsenic and sediment. Conservationists said the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River is an important habitat for endangered salmon, and the nearby Frank Church Wilderness is home to many plant and animal species, including wolverines, bears, beavers, wolves and endangered salmon. Perpetua Resources has pledged to clean up some of the legacy pollution as it resumes mining for gold, silver and antimony. Conservation groups argue that the new mining plans call for disturbing an even greater area of land than the previous owners of Stibnite, which they argue could do immeasurable harm to public lands and important fish and wildlife habitat. This week's lawsuit alleges that when the U.S. Forest Service issued its approval, it failed to consider the project's negative environmental impacts or properly consider alternatives. 'Permitting this level of destruction not only threatens a culturally important area and cherished public lands, it fails to comply with the law,' Bryan Hurlbutt, a staff attorney at Advocates for the West, said in a written statement Tuesday. 'By prioritizing mining and giving Perpetua Resources everything they asked for, the Forest Service violated its duties to protect fish and wildlife, and ensure clean water and air.' Officials with Perpetua Resources disagree with the lawsuit, saying they followed all the legal processes throughout the permitting, application and approval process. CONTACT US 'The Stibnite Gold Project has undergone a rigorous, science-based environmental review over the course of eight years, and we are confident in the U.S. Forest Service's ability to defend its Record of Decision,' Perpetua Resources wrote in a written statement shared with the Idaho Capital Sun on Wednesday. 'While legal challenges to mining projects are commonplace, it is important to ensure the process remains rooted in science and the rule of law.' Officials with Perpetua say that the mine represents a rare domestic source of the element antimony, which they said can be refined and used in ammunition and batteries for electric vehicles. 'The Stibnite Gold Project is critical to our national security and is poised to provide hundreds of family-wage jobs, restore habitat, reconnect fish to their native spawning grounds, clean up legacy contamination, improve water quality and establish the only domestically mined source of antimony,' Perpetua Resources said. 'The project offers the abandoned mine site the only viable path to near-term cleanup. These benefits are too important to be unnecessarily delayed, especially after eight years of permitting and project improvements. We are hopeful this challenge will be swiftly resolved, making the Stibnite Gold Project a reality.' However, conservation groups say the proximity to wilderness and critical habitat is no place to resume mining and expand Stibnite into one of the largest gold mines in the United States. 'The impacts to the South Fork Salmon River watershed, threatened fish and wildlife, public access, clean air, clean water and world class recreation from the Stibnite Gold Project are simply unacceptable,' John Robison, public lands and wildlife director for the Idaho Conservation League, said in a written statement. 'Given the recent layoffs at the Payette National Forest, we are concerned about the Forest Service's ability to manage this high-risk project in addition to all their other responsibilities.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
