Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019 · Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021

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Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Alexis Clark
Mark Barton

       Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-01

       Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

    University of Idaho
Updated August 2025

  Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

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Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Alexis Clark
Mark Barton

Staff Reports present timely information for
public distribution. This report may not
conform to the agency’s publication standards.

       Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-01

       Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

    University of Idaho
Updated August 2025

  Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

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Table of Contents

Introduction …………………………………………………………………….……

Metal Mining ………………………………………………………………………………

Phosphate Mining ……………………………………………………………….…..…….. 10
Other Industrial Minerals ………………………………………………………………….

Energy Resources …...…………………………………………………………………….. 14
Mineral Exploration ……………………………..………………………………………...

State Activities 2018 – 2019 ..……………………………………………………………..

Figures

Figure 1. Value of Idaho’s non-fuel mineral production, 2010 - 2019….……

Figure 2. Location of active mining areas..…….…

Figure 3. Gold Hunter vein on 6200 level of the Lucky Friday mine ……………..…..…

Figure 4. Miners with Jumbo drill driving drift, Galena mine …………...…………...….

Figure 5. Location map of southeast Idaho Phosphate District….…………...………...… 11
Figure 6. Reclamation of F1 pit, Smoky Canyon mine…………………………...……… 12
Figure 7. Location map of industrial mineral operations, 2019…….……………….…

Figure 8. Geology and location map of Idaho’s hydrocarbon fields, 2018…..……….….. 15
Figure 9. Location map of exploration projects and areas, 2019..………….………….…. 17
Figure 10. Drilling at the Baner mine project, 2018 …………….…………………  18
Figure 11. Site overview of the Idaho Cobalt Project, October 2018 …..……………  21
Figure 12. Cobalt in soils map with IP targets at Colson project, June 2019…………..… 22
Figure 13. Blue chrysocolla and secondary copper in core, Empire mine, 2018.…...……

Figure 14. Core drilling at the Stone Cabin mine pit on Florida Mountain, 2019….…….. 24
Figure 15. Core with polymetallic sulfides, South Mountain, 2019………… ………... 25

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Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019

Virginia S. Gillerman, Idaho Geological Survey
Earl H. Bennett, retired, Idaho Geological Survey
Alexis Clark, Idaho Geological Survey
Mark Barton, Idaho Geological Survey

INTRODUCTION

The years of 2018-2019 continued the general downward trend of mining activity and production
in Idaho. The state’s highest value of non-fuel mineral production was in 2011 when the large
Thompson Creek molybdenum mine was active. This staff report summarizes developments in the
calendar years of 2018 and 2019. Additional details and photographs are in the annual visual
presentations available on the Mines and Minerals page of the Idaho Geological Survey (IGS)
website:
https://www.idahogeology.org/geologic-resources/mines-minerals/current-historicmining-activity. Of special note in 2019 was the 100th anniversary of the Idaho Geological Survey,
which was started in 1919 in Moscow under the former name of Idaho Bureau of Mines and
Geology.

Figure 1 shows a graph of Idaho’s value of non-fuel mineral production totals for the period 2010
– 2019, as reported by the USGS. The numbers behind the graph are largely final but may contain
some preliminary or estimated values. As reported by the USGS, Idaho’s non-fuel mineral
production of raw ore was approximately $465 million in 2018 and $463 million in 2019. This is
about a $100 million drop from 2017. The decrease over several years is partly due to lower
commodity prices but also a decrease in ore tonnage mined from the Lucky Friday mine. The large
drop in value from 2014 to 2015 was a result of the termination of mining and conversion to care
and maintenance status at Thompson Creek. In both 2018 and 2019, the USGS ranks Idaho as 35th
by value, based on unadjusted State values. Industrial minerals make up about 85-90% of Idaho’s
value for the period 2018-2019. Active mine locations are shown in Figure 2.

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Idaho Non-fuel Mineral
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
s

0 600,000

400,000
200,000

2010f 2011f 2012f 2013f
Metals $
Figure 1. Value of Idaho non-fuel mineral produc
year’s data are from final (f) statistics, with som
indicated in blue, while the difference between th
minerals.
Final revised production values for Idaho nonperiod have not yet become publicly available fro
the best available data from the USGS was inclu
21-02 covering the years 2016-2017. Final 2018 a
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-i
Production values for ten of Idaho’s mined comm
not released individually. The total combined val
category was $254 million in 2019 and $299 mi
following commodities: feldspar, garnet (industr
pumice and pumicite, sand and gravel (industrial)
of phosphate rock, construction sand and gravel, c
values are concealed, it is difficult to fully recon
USGS; some data may be preliminary. Companyin the Coeur d’Alene District is available in the
years 2000 – 2020. As can be seen in the actual p
in production of silver and base metals from Hecl
due to a labor strike at the mine. Limited producti
but overall, the 2018 – 2019 metal values were si

Production (USGS data)
2014f 2015f 2016f 2017 2018pf 2019pf
Year
$ Total $
ction, based on USGS data by year. Most of the
me preliminary (p) values for 2019. Metals are
he blue and the red (total value) is from industrial
-fuel mineral production during the 2016-2017
om the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), although
uded in the Idaho Geological Survey Staff Report
and 2019 data can be found on the USGS website:
information-center/mineral-industry-idaho
modities are considered as “concealed” data and
lue of the ten Idaho commodities in the concealed
illion in 2018. That combined value includes the
rial), lead, lime, perlite (crude), phosphate rock,
), silver, and zeolites. Idaho is a leading producer
crushed stone, silver and lead. As several of those
ncile annual mineral value totals reported by the
-published production data for north Idaho mines
e Idaho Geological Survey’s GeoNote 47 for the
production data, a notable event was the decrease
la’s Lucky Friday mine for 2017 – 2019; this was
ion was supplied by the salaried level employees,
ignificantly down for the mine.

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[/TABLE]

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For 2018 – 2019, gold and silver prices were stable to moderately rising by late 2019 when spot
prices reached close to $1460 per troy ounce for gold and $17 per troy ounce for silver. Rare earth
prices also seemed to be on an upswing, possibly due to geopolitical influences. Base metals were
showing cyclical to downward trends. The molybdenum spot price was in the doldrums at close to
$10 per pound in late 2019. Cobalt prices were more volatile and interesting. The spot price of
cobalt spiked to just over $40 per pound in the summer of 2018 after rising for a year, before it
sharply declined and was down to about $16 per pound in November 2019. However, the price
spike prompted a staking rush in the Idaho Cobalt belt at the end of 2017 into 2018.

Figure 2. Location of active mines and plants in 2018 and 2019. Both the Coeur d’Alene district
and the Phosphate district have been operating for over 100 years. Yellow dots are small gold
mines. The open square indicates the inactive Thompson Creek mine; the black cross hair is for
oil and gas production, and the blue triangle indicates a geothermal power plant.

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METAL MINING

COEUR D’ALENE AND MURRAY DISTRICTS
North Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene District, also known as the Silver Valley, has mined silver along
with lead, zinc, copper, and antimony since 1884 from structurally-controlled, quartz-sideritesulfide veins in deformed Mesoproterozoic Belt Basin metasedimentary rocks. The world-class
district in Shoshone County is credited with over 1.24 billion troy ounces of silver. In 2018 – 2019
the north Idaho region was home to Idaho’s metal mining industry.
Hecla Mining Company, operator of the Lucky Friday mine at Mullan, celebrated its 125th birthday
in 2016. Hecla started in the Silver Valley in 1891 and has a large property position in the district.
Current production has been from the Gold Hunter vein system (Fig. 3), accessed off the new #4
internal shaft located about a mile west of the surface hoist in the Silver Shaft. The #4 shaft is
collared at the 4900 level and was completed in 2016 to the 8620 level, making it one of the deepest
in the hemisphere at 9,587 feet below land surface. In 2016, the mine produced 3.6 million ounces
of silver, but in March 2017, the miners went out on strike, partly over demands to control their
own work assignments and shifts. The USW Local 5114 remained on strike for the remainder of
2017, and all of 2018 and 2019. Salaried employees performed limited mining and milling during
the strike, but production was down significantly. Only 169,041 troy ounces of silver were
extracted in 2018 and 632,944 troy ounces silver in 2019. Hecla investigated acquiring a Swedishbuilt remote vein miner machine during the work stoppage. In November 2019, a tentative
settlement was reached between Hecla and the union with a ballot count taking place in midDecember. The settlement was approved, and production resumed early in 2020.

Americas Silver Corporation operated the Galena mine near Osburn. The mine complex includes
the adjacent Coeur and Caladay properties plus two mills. The mine staff was using newly
developed 3-D mine models to target and drill Ag-Pb veins in the upper portions of the mine from
the 3700 to 2400 levels in 2018 as well as mining new stopes on the deep 5200 levels. However,
needed hoist repairs in the 2nd quarter of 2018 negatively impacted ore production. The company
agreed to combine with Pershing Gold, and that acquisition was completed in April 2019; the new
company was renamed Americas Gold and Silver Corporation. Conventional and mechanical
mining continued, along with 23,000 feet of drilling that resulted in two new vein discoveries on
the 4900, yet hoist problems continued to plague the mine. A milestone agreement was negotiated
when the company signed a joint venture agreement with Eric Sprott in September 2019, whereby
Sprott would earn a 40% interest in the Galena in return for financing $20 million in new
equipment and upgrades. The Recapitalization plan called for a new hoist in the Galena shaft,
multiple repairs and development work, and increased exploration drilling (Fig. 4).

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Figure 3. Close-up (see dark pencil in center for scale) of vein on 6200 sublevel, 16 stope, 30 vein,
Gold Hunter system, Lucky Friday mine (2018). Left wall rock is green silty argillite, vein quartz
is white, gray material is argentiferous galena, tan is siderite, and black is sphalerite. Photo width
approximately 3 feet.

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Figure 4. Galena miners driving drift with Jumbo to access new 075 vein, 4900 level (2019 photo).

North Idaho’s Murray district, a major placer gold producer, is a short distance north of the town
of Wallace in the Coeur d’Alene district. New Jersey Mining Company, an Idaho-based company,
mined lode gold from their wholly owned, Golden Chest mine just east of Murray. Production was
both from underground and an open pit with extracted ore trucked to their 360-tonne per day

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flotation mill at Kellogg. Multiple orogenic-style gold-quartz veins are localized along the Idaho
fault at the mine. Ore grades were in the 3 to 5 gram/tonne range. The company purchased a new
CAT haul truck and loader. Production was approximately 4000 to 5000 ounces of gold per year.
The company hosted a Belt Association field trip in September 2018.
Near Elk City, the Finnish company Endomines acquired TVL Gold LLC and the underground
Friday mine, located along the Orogrande shear zone west of Elk City in Idaho County. The
company did development and pre-production work in 2019 along narrow gold veins localized
between the Monday and Friday faults. However, their flotation and gravity mill southeast of Elk
City proved to be a long haul from the mine, and the tailings pond suffered damage from a harsh
winter, hampering operations. Endomines also acquired the Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood deposits
nearby, as well as the Rescue mine at Warren and the Kimberly gold mine in the Marshall
Mountains.

PHOSPHATE MINING

Southeast Idaho’s Phosphate District includes three large open pit mines and three processing
plants, and all were in full operation (Fig. 5). Production was estimated at approximately 4 to 5
million tons of phosphate rock from the mines in Caribou County. The resource is part of the
Meade Peak member of the Phosphoria Formation, a black phosphatic shale deposited over parts
of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Montana in the Permian about 265 million years ago. The ore
mineral is fluorapatite and ore grades are in the 25 to 30 weight percent P2O5 range. The shales are
also enriched in trace elements such as carbon, uranium, vanadium, selenium and rare earth
elements. As recognized in the 1990s, selenium is enriched dominantly in the middle waste shales
and easily released when oxidized waters percolate through old waste dumps. The companies and
agencies have been addressing this issue by capping old dumps and new overburden piles, plus
segregating and backfilling waste rock to prevent oxidation and water contact at active mines.
Long-time phosphate miner Monsanto was acquired by international chemical and pharmaceutical
producer Bayer in 2018, and Agrium was acquired by Itafos. The third company operating in the
area is J.R. Simplot, a private, Idaho-based company. The phosphate rock was processed locally
into phosphoric acid for fertilizer (Agrium/Itafos plant at Conda and Simplot’s plant in Pocatello)
or into elemental phosphorus (Monsanto/Bayer’s plant at Soda Springs). Each of the company’s
mines and processing plant employs several hundred workers, providing a substantial economic
base for southeast Idaho.

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Figure 5. Location map of Phosphate District of southeast Idaho. Active open pit mines are in red
ovals; green ovals are mines in reclamation; squares with red Xs are plants. DS is Dairy Syncline;
CC is Caldwell Canyon property.

J.R. Simplot operated the Smoky Canyon mine near the Wyoming border. The F panel, or Manning
Creek lease, was mined in both 2018 and 2019, and the G panel, or Deer Creek lease, accessed for
mining in 2019. Simplot segregated the waste rock to isolate the more Se-rich material into
infiltration-limited covered areas during concurrent reclamation (Fig. 6). The final Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for the Dairy Syncline mine plan was released on November 8, 2019. The
agency’s preferred alternative was to allow mining with modifications. The property would have
a 30-year mine-life. A smaller project, the East Smoky panel expansion, draft EIS went out for
public review in September 2018.
Bayer took over operations at the Blackfoot Bridge mine after their acquisition of Monsanto.
Mining by their subsidiary P4 continued in the North pit and then the Mid pit with backfilling of
the North pit. The mine installed geosynthetic clay/laminated layer covers on the external
overburden or waste rock piles during concurrent reclamation. In 2019, Bayer drilled 8,900 feet of
exploration drilling in 28 holes on the Trail Creek lease; roads and pads were reclaimed.  In August
2019, the agencies (Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service) issued a Record of
Decision (ROD) approving the mine plan for the Caldwell Canyon property. The Draft EIS had
been released November 30, 2018, for public review after the EIS process started in March 2017
following several years of study. The proposed Caldwell Canyon mine would have a 40-year mine
life, and initial overburden would backfill the old Dry Valley mine of FMC.
Agrium’s Conda Phosphate Operations, including the plant and active mines and leases, were sold
to Itafos in late 2017 as part of a corporate merger and acquisition deal. Nu-west, was reorganized
into a new company, Nutrien, retained ownership and responsibility to manage the reclamation of
the older mines, including the South and Central Rasmussen Ridge property. Itafos began ore
production at the Rasmussen Valley mine in early 2018 to supply feed for the Conda fertilizer

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plant. In a novel collaboration, the initial overburden was sent to the nearby South Rasmussen pit
which was previously mined by Monsanto and P4. Itafos also mined a private lease at the existing
Lanes Creek mine. Itafos’ ore was sent to the fertilizer plant at Conda. Stated capacity at the plant
is 550 kt per year of MAP (monoammonium phosphate), super phosphoric acid and other products.
Itafos was also reviewing exploration and development options for the Husky 1/ North Dry Ridge
leases and the Paris Hills underground phosphate area located in Bear Lake County.

Figure 6. Smoky Canyon mine reclamation of F1 N pit in September 2018. Multi-layered caps are
constructed over reclaimed waste rock areas.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MINERALS

Idaho produces a variety of industrial minerals in addition to phosphate rock. Construction sand
and gravel was the most widely mined and distributed material but more unique commodities
mined included industrial and gem garnet, dimension stone, high-purity pumice and perlite,
zeolites, feldspar, bentonite and calcium (Fig. 7). Industrial mineral operations in 2018 and 2019
changed little from prior years as markets were fairly stable, though not stellar. Particularly in
southwest Idaho, demand was up somewhat for aggregate and construction sand and gravel. The

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smaller industrial minerals plants and quarries are important segments to local economies in rural
areas.

Figure 7. Location of Idaho’s industrial mineral operations, excluding phosphate and aggregate
quarries, in 2019.

In north Idaho, Emerald Creek Garnet continued to mine alluvial almadine garnets for abrasives
and filtration uses. Opta Minerals Inc. owns Emerald Creek; the garnet operations started in the
1930s near Fernwood. Covia Corporation bought Unimin’s industrial sand operation in Gem
County in 2019. Feldspar and clean quartz were extracted from Tertiary lakeshore sediments and
washed and packaged at Covia’s plant near Emmett in southwest Idaho. The feldspathic sand is
used in glass-making and other uses. Oakley stone, a durable micaceous quartzite which splits into
thin sheets was mined by Northern Stone Supply, Sawtooth Stone, Scrivanich and smaller

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operations from pits on Middle Mountain in Cassia County. The facing stone is also cut into tiles
and exported for use in high-end residential and commercial buildings. Another unique Idaho
deposit is the high-purity pumice mined at the Wrights Creek mine in Oneida County. The pumice
is processed by Hess Pumice in a plant at Malad. The company uses special screens to separate
size ranges of the pumice particles for use in lightweight aggregate and artificial stone, pozzolan,
abrasives, filtration, and other markets. Hess also mines and processes perlite and produces grout
and pozzolan. One of the only exploration projects for industrial minerals in recent years has been
i-minerals’ Bovill project in Latah County in north Idaho. The district is a historic clay producer
and much of the project area is on state mineral leases. The i-minerals project was evaluating the
potential for several commodities, including kaolin and metakaolin, halloysite, quartz and feldspar.
Work in 2018 and 2019 included processing optimization studies, engineering, and completion of
a 43-101 report by SRK in April 2019. However, the clay business is very competitive with the
southeast US being a dominant producer.

ENERGY RESOURCES

Since about 2011, the Idaho Office of Energy and Mineral Resources (OEMR) has documented
production, usage and governmental policy related to Idaho’s energy use and resources.
Hydropower dominates Idaho’s energy production and supplies approximately half of the state’s
consumption. In 2019, OEMR listed hydropower capacity in the state at 2,700 MW from over 140
existing generating plants with the largest being the Hells Canyon Complex on the Snake River
and Dworshak Dam on the Clearwater River. However, geothermal power and natural gas
production contributed to Idaho’s energy portfolio in 2018 – 2019.

OIL AND GAS
Commercial fossil fuel extraction in the western Snake River Plain of southwestern Idaho began
in 2015-2016 with oil, gas, and condensate production from Alta Mesa Holdings wells (Fig. 8A).
These wells target conventional clastic reservoirs in the Tertiary Glenns Ferry, Chalk Hills, and
Payette Formations, located at depths of approximately 1,500 to 6,500 feet. The Willow field, near
New Plymouth, consists of eight wells that collectively produced about 2.9 TCF of natural gas,
140,000 barrels of condensate, 100,000 barrels of NGLs, and 90,000 barrels of light oil during the
2018-2019 period. In early 2018, two successful exploration wells: Barlow 1-14 and Fallon 1-10,
were drilled and completed near Fruitland, encountering approximately 175 feet of net pay in highporosity and high-permeability sands (Fig. 8B). Additionally, in the fall of 2018, CPC Mineral
drilled the Bell 17-2 exploration well in Bonneville County, southeast Idaho. Although natural gas
shows were recorded in the Jurassic Twin Creek Limestone target zone, the well was deemed
uneconomical and was subsequently plugged and abandoned. Ongoing petroleum system research

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by the IGS in the Western Snake River Plain aims to identify potential source rocks and assess
their hydrocarbon-generating potential.

Figure 8. A) Simplified geology and location map of Idaho’s hydrocarbon fields in 2018. B)
Wireline logs illustrating the hydrocarbon zone encountered in the Barlow 1-14 well. GR is gamma
ray log; DEN is density log; RES is resistivity log; CNL is compensated neutron log. Figure
prepared by Mark Barton of the Idaho Geological Survey.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Ormat operated the only commercial geothermal power plant in Idaho (Fig. 2). It is located at Raft
River in southern Cassia County and provided about 11 MW of net capacity from a binary, watercooled system. The state also has lower temperature resources which are used locally for heating
in both urban and rural systems. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy was looking at research
into Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) which require reservoir stimulation.

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MINERAL EXPLORATION

2018 saw an increase in major drilling programs for hard rock mineral commodities, particularly
gold and cobalt (Fig. 9). Numerous drill rigs were kept active in 2018 and 2019 on advanced
projects in Idaho. Some of the increased interest was a result of new, more mining-friendly federal
government attitudes and policies including the late 2017 cancellation of the proposed sagebrush
focal area withdrawals. Relatively stable and robust precious metal prices and a spike in the price
of cobalt in 2017-2018 also helped enhance exploration interest. The Bureau of Land Management
reported over 6,000 new mining claims filed in Idaho in 2018 and about 5,000 of those were in the
Idaho Cobalt belt. Unfortunately, the cobalt price dropped significantly by the end of 2109 down
to the $15 per pound range, versus its high of over $40 per pound spot price in early 2018.

NORTH IDAHO
Bunker Hill Mining Corporation, formerly Liberty Silver, was founded in 2017, to explore the
historic Bunker Hill lead-zinc mine on the west end of the Coeur d’Alene district. The Bunker
produced about 38 million tons of ore between 1885 and 1981 when the mine and smelter closed
as the former owner, Gulf Resources, went bankrupt, laying off 2200 workers and opening the site
to a now-completed CERCLA cleanup. The new company had financing problems and defaulted
on their lease-purchase agreement with owner (Placer Mining Corp.), but in November 2018, the
company renegotiated to reduce the payment for a year. It was also in discussions with the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about assuming costs of the water treatment plant in
return for needed permits. The lease-option agreement was amended again in October 2019 for
nine months and more favorable terms. A large zinc resource in the Quill zone and other areas was
identified prior to the mine closure.

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Figure 9. Location of major mineral exploration projects in 2019. Green rectangles are for
industrial minerals; blue triangles are geothermal plants and projects; black crosshair is petroleum;
all red dots and polygons are for metal exploration projects.

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At Murray, Hecla did surface work and drilled 11 core holes on their Little Baldy project along
the East Fork of Eagle Creek. They purchased the Tobbogan claims from New Jersey Mining and
staked additional land. Mineralization is present as orogenic-style gold-quartz veins hosted in Belt
metasedimentary rocks. The veins were likely contributors to the Murray gold placers.
New Vulcan Hill (NVH), a private company, did minor work on their polymetallic mining claims
in the Lakeview district just south of Lake Pend Oreille.
West of the town of Elk City, Idaho Champion drilled at the Baner gold mine. They had good
results along 500 meters of strike of the deeply oxidized zone which splays off the main Orogrande
shear (Fig.10). Champion drilled 5,200m in 19 core holes in 2018 with intercepts including
ICG2018-13 with 5.76 g/t Au over 12.65m at a shallow depth. Alteration around the shear zone is
dominantly quartz-sericite-pyrite. Lack of funding prevented work the following year despite the
favorable results.

Figure 10. Drilling at the Baner mine project of Idaho Champion, near Elk City, 2018.

STIBNITE-YELLOW PINE, VALLEY COUNTY
Evaluation by the U.S. Forest Service and other regulators of the 2016 NEPA Plan of Restoration
and Operations (PRO) for the proposed Stibnite gold-antimony mine in Valley County was
ongoing. The project developed by Midas Gold contained over 5 million troy ounces of gold and
a significant antimony resource. Research by the Idaho Geological Survey and others has described

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a complex history of overprinted mineralization with gold ores developed in an orogenic-style
shear setting at approximately 62 Ma, while the antimony precipitated as the mineral stibnite 16
million years later. Due to historical impacts, including mining of strategic antimony and tungsten
during wartime, multiple legacy environmental issues make the minesite and PRO plan complex
and controversial. Midas proposed mining the gold to help pay for restoration of the site and reestablishment of fish passage up the East Fork of the Salmon River. The company continued
metallurgy, geotechnical work, and geologic modelling in 2018, and they drilled several large
volume water wells for pump tests in 2019. A draft EIS was anticipated at the end of 2019.
However, in August 2019, the Nez Perce Tribe sued Midas over water quality issues and cited
them as responsible for prior environmental damage from 100 years of mining. The designated
Nez Perce tribal reservation is over 100 km north of Stibnite, but the tribe maintains a claim to
fishing rights in the Salmon River watershed. Litigation and legal issues were still active at the end
of 2019.

SALMON AREA, LEMHI COUNTY
Revival Gold continued an aggressive program at their Beartrack and Arnett Creek gold projects
in Lemhi County near the historic placer workings at Leesburg. The Beartrack mine produced
about 600,000 troy ounces of gold from Meridian Gold’s open pit, heap leach mine from 1994 –
2000 prior to being reclaimed. Revival conducted 6,500 meters of diamond drilling in 13 holes in
2018. In 2019, the company added 3 core holes totaling 1,230m in the Joss target at Beartrack and
22 core holes totaling 3,830m at Arnett Creek. An NI 43-101 report released in July 2018
calculated a 33 million tonne indicated resource at over 1 g/t Au with mineralization open in
several directions. The company conducted additional soil sampling and mapping at Arnett Creek
and a 400-line-kilometer airborne magnetic survey along with expanding their land position and
doing metallurgical tests. The two deposits at the “BTAC” project are two distinctly different goldbearing systems that happen to be located within a few miles of each other and close to facilities
remaining from Meridian’s operation. The Beartrack mine exploited an orogenic-style goldarsenopyrite vein along the Panther Creek and Coiner fault systems. The enigmatic mineralization
at Arnett Creek is highly oxidized and hosted in a series of Paleozoic-age intrusions.
The Idaho Cobalt belt is a well-defined, northwest-trending belt of cobalt occurrences in Lemhi
County west of the town of Salmon. Though all the occurrences in the approximately 30-mile by
5-mile belt are hosted in Mesoproterozoic rocks of the Apple Creek formation, the zone trends
across geologic contacts and structures. The Apple Creek lithologies are principally siltites and
argillites with some coarser sand units. Biotitite, a poorly understood, biotite-rich rock, is
associated with some of the mineralized areas in the northern part of the belt. The cobalt mineral
is largely cobaltite in the north with cobaltiferous pyrite dominant on the southeast; chalcopyrite
is the copper-bearing mineral. Due to cobalt’s use in rechargeable batteries and the price increase,
several new companies initiated a staking war in the Cobalt belt. The 2018 list of companies
included: New World Cobalt, eCobalt, International Cobalt, ePower Metals, Century Cobalt,
Hybrid Minerals, Borah Resources, and First Cobalt. The two major companies active in 2019
included First Cobalt at the Iron Creek property and Jervois Mining, an Australian company, at
the Idaho Cobalt Project (ICP). Jervois which purchased eCobalt in July 2019 to obtain the ICP
and its RAM ore deposit, a 1997 discovery of Formation Capital Corp. (renamed eCobalt), which

--- PAGE 20 ---

is located adjacent to the historic Blackbird mine. By the end of 2019, most claims remained on
many of the other land holdings although fewer companies were actively engaged in exploration.
The major cobalt producer was the now-closed Blackbird mine near the townsite of Cobalt in
Lemhi County. Geologically, the tightly folded Belt-age metasedimentary rocks, were assigned to
the Yellowjacket, and later the Apple Creek or other formations. The depositional age of the rocks
is approximately 1.4 Ga. The Blackbird district has been split apparently along several thrust
plates, presumed to be from Cretaceous convergence, and varying metamorphic intensity is
displayed. The maximum metamorphic grade is garnet facies or higher to the northwest but only
chlorite to biotite grade further south. The origin of the ores is debated, though Blackbird
mineralization is partly stratabound in a banded siltite unit with multiple ore horizons. Some ore
is locally remobilized along fold hinges. Cobaltite (CoAsS2) with pyrite and chalcopyrite is
dominant at Blackbird and the RAM, and there is a significant gold credit and locally anomalous
rare earths. The best geochronology from recent USGS work suggests that cobalt was introduced
early in the system, possibly during or shortly after sedimentation or associated with a 1370 Ma
intrusive event, however, the details remain unclear.
In 2018-2019, the Idaho Cobalt Project of eCobalt/Jervois was the most advanced project in the
Idaho Cobalt belt. The mine was permitted after discovery of the RAM deposit in 1997 but not
developed until recently due to financing problems. Work in 2018 included construction and dirt
work for the underground mine portal bench, mill facilities, tailings impoundment and water
storage ponds (Fig. 11). In July 2019, Jervois Mining, an Australian firm, purchased eCobalt and
the project in a deal valued at $44 million. The permitted NI 43-101 compliant measured and
indicated (M and I) resource was listed at 3.87 Mt of 0.59% Co and 0.85% Cu plus 1.82 Mt inferred
resource at 0.46% Co and 0.81% Cu, and a gold credit. The project was renamed the Idaho Cobalt
Operation, or ICO. Jervois initiated a bankable feasibility study, metallurgy, and a footwall drilling
program which intersected two new mineralized horizons. Jervois also initiated a scoping study
for a processing facility.

--- PAGE 21 ---

Figure 11. Site overview in October 2018 of the Idaho Cobalt Project.
On the southeast end of the belt, First Cobalt, acquired US Cobalt and the Iron Creek project in
June 2018. They conducted 18,000 meters of surface and underground core drilling along the No
Name and Waite zones. They completed a Phase 2 drill program in early 2019 for a total of 43
diamond drill holes, along with geologic mapping and interpretation. The No Name deposit is
accessed by historic adits on either side of Iron Creek. An additional zone or continuation is
exposed in roadcuts above Jackass Creek further east. Mineralization at Iron Creek consists of
cobaltiferous pyrite, often with magnetite and some chalcopyrite. In most areas, the copper zone
is partly separate from the cobalt zone. Drilling expanded the strike and dip dimensions of the
deposit, and the company was updating the resource calculation at the end of 2019. First Cobalt
owns a refinery at Cobalt, Ontario.
International Cobalt Corporation, a Vancouver-based junior, reported a “grass roots” discovery in
2018 from surface rock-chip and soil samples south of the Blackbird mine patented claims and
mill area in what they called the Raven and Ludwig zones. They also reported enriched rare earth
and gold values in soils. Century Cobalt Corporation staked a large land package (the Emperium
Cobalt Project) and conducted limited surface work.
An Australian company, New World Cobalt or New World Resources, also known as Codaho,
drilled the Salmon Canyon Copper mine property in 2018. The project was referred to as the
Colson Cobalt-Copper project; it is located on the far northwest end of the belt and is in schists
and gneisses. The mine sits along the north bank of the Salmon River, a sensitive environmental
site and a busy recreation corridor, though the property continues to the north out of sight of the
river in the Long Tom area. New World conducted an extensive soil geochemical survey, IP survey
and drilled 12 holes, totaling almost 5,000 meters (Fig. 12). One intercept on the Salmon Canyon
target was 1.1 meters assaying 0.18% Co,1.43% Cu, and 0.74 g/t Au. The Australian company was
permitted for additional drilling in the future.

--- PAGE 22 ---

Figure 12. Cobalt in soils and IP targets at the Colson project of New World Cobalt, from
company press release June 2019.

EASTERN AND SOUTHERN IDAHO
Otis Gold continued work on their Kilgore project in Clark County during both years. Kilgore is a
low-sulfidation, epithermal gold-silver system which is hosted primarily in Tertiary volcanic
rocks. In 2017, the company drilled mineralization in a sedimentary unit, the Aspen Formation,
which is below the volcanics. Otis filed a new NI 43-101 resource in 2018 with an indicated
resource of 825,000 ounces of gold in 44.6 million metric tons at a grade of 0.58 g/t Au. The
company did additional soil surveys and flew Lidar. In 2019, Otis was drilling on a 12-hole RC
program and completed a preliminary economic analysis for a 5-year mine life operation.
Exploration was stymied when the Idaho Conservation League (ICL) sued the U.S. Forest Service
over the new drill permit. A ruling was expected near the end of 2019. Kilgore is an
environmentally sensitive project due to its location within the Greater Yellowstone region.
Phoenix Copper Ltd., alias PG Mining or affiliate Konnex, continued work on their Empire mine
project at Mackay in Custer County. The deposit is a copper-zinc skarn which Phoenix drilled in
2018 (Fig. 13). In May 2019, they released a new NI 43-101 resource for an open-pit, SX-EW
(solvent extraction/electrowinning) operation resource containing 73,872 tonnes copper, 29,813
tonnes zinc, 139,000 ounces gold and 6 million ounces silver. Phoenix was working on a bankable
feasibility study and environmental baseline work with a drill program planned for 2020. They
also staked the nearby Navarre Creek gold and Red Star polymetallic targets.

--- PAGE 23 ---

Figure 13. Blue chrysocolla and other secondary copper minerals along fractures in core from the
Empire mine drilling in 2018.

In mid-2018 Liberty Gold, then Pilot Gold, acquired 100% of the Black Pine Project from Western
Pacific Resources Corporation for $ 800,000 cash, stock shares and a small NSR payment. Black
Pine in Cassia County near the Utah border is a large Carlin-type sediment-hosted gold district.
Historically a mercury producer, the district was rediscovered by Noranda in the late 1980s and
eventually mined by Pegasus from 1992-1997 with production cited as 435,000 ounces gold at a
historic grade of 0.63 g/t Au from shallow pits. The mine closed at a time of low gold prices, but
the data and property package was quite large. In 2017, Liberty reviewed the old data, had a small
RC drilling program and applied to the Forest Service for a much larger drilling program. Liberty’s
geologists compiled the extensive data package and developed a 3D geologic and mineralization
model. At Black Pine the geology consists of several plates of carbonate rocks displaced along
low-angle detachment faults. In February 2019, Liberty received a new expanded plan of
operations for up to 370 drillholes. They negotiated access rights with the BLM and commenced
drilling in April with a total of 65,000 feet of reverse circulation (RC) drilling in about 90 holes
completed in 2019. Six core holes and five large-diameter holes for bulk sampling were also
drilled. Liberty reported two new mineralized zones from the drilling.
Integra Resources drilled another large precious metal project at the DeLamar mine in Owyhee
County of southwestern Idaho. The DeLamar district includes three mineralized centers of
Miocene-age, low-sulfidation epithermal mineralization, with the historic DeLamar mine operated
as an open pit mine by Kinross until it closed in 1998. Production from the old high-grade veins

--- PAGE 24 ---

and the newer open-pit is estimated at about 1.6 million ounces of gold and 100 million ounces of
silver. Integra acquired the reclaimed DeLamar mine in October 2017 and the adjoining Florida
Mountain project in January 2018. Florida Mountain had been permitted as an open pit mine by
Kinross, but there was only minor production before the project shut down due to the low metal
prices. Integra quickly drilled over 20,000 meters in 2018, including some deep intercepts of good
grades (over 5 g/t Au Eq) in the classic Trade Dollar vein system of Florida Mountain (Fig. 14).
They also conducted metallurgy work, did airborne geophysics and surface soil sampling. The NI
43-101 compliant resource released in October 2019 listed an M & I resource of 3.9 Moz AuEq
plus another 500K oz AuEq inferred.

Fig. 14. Core drilling in the Florida Mountain pit, of the Stone Cabin mine at Integra’s DeLamar
project in July 2019.

Also in Owyhee County, BeMetals explored the zinc skarn and high-grade polymetallic
replacements at South Mountain, a private land package leased from Thunder Mountain Gold, a
Boise-based company. BeMetals drilled 20 holes from underground at South Mountain (Fig. 15).
Results included a 12-meter intercept of 18% zinc and 1.5% lead with 122 g/t Ag and 4 g/t Au.

--- PAGE 25 ---

Figure. 15. Dark sphalerite and pyrite in core from South Mountain, Idaho, 2019.

STATE ACTIVITIES 2018-2019
The Idaho Geological Survey had a very active geologic mapping program. From 1993 to 2018,
the IGS received $ 4.3 million for geologic mapping through the Statemap program of the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) and published 208 maps. Geologic maps and other publications are
posted on the IGS website (www.idahogeology.org) and available for free downloads as pdf
documents. In many cases GIS data is also available. In 2019, mapping was focused on the Salmon,
Weiser, Preston, and Elk City areas, while new quadrangles in the Idaho Cobalt belt were funded
by the USGS’s Earth MRI program since cobalt was a critical mineral. Another new mapping
project was an industry-funded, 1:24,000 scale map of two quadrangles centered around the Integra
DeLamar mine project in Owyhee County.
The Survey debuted a new mines web application on a redesigned IGS web site. The map-based
application makes it easier to search for information on the over 8,800 mineral properties in the
database. Searches can be done by name, commodity, location, surface land management and

--- PAGE 26 ---

PLSS. A revised version of the mines database (DD-1) with additional references was released in
2019.
A major project has been a basin analysis and reservoir characterization to better understand the
southwestern Idaho hydrocarbon fields of the western Snake River Plain. Industry collaboration,
and particularly review of the seismic lines, has been a major part of the project. Drone-captured
imagery of the field outcrop exposures was combined with the 2D seismic lines to document the
facies architecture and assist with subsurface interpretations. The project is ongoing.
Hydrogeologic characterizations and groundwater modeling of the Big Lost River Basin and the
Raft River Basin were also underway with funding from the Idaho Department of Water Resources
and collaboration of the USGS.  Geologic hazard studies included mapping of the Bear Lake fault
and a paleoseismic investigation and a new effort to develop a state landslide database.
In minerals, the Idaho Department of Lands and the Idaho Mining Association passed legislation
in 2019 to revise the state’s regulatory oversight to include the surface impacts of underground
mines and update various financial costs. The IGS commented to the state’s Office of Energy and
Mineral Resources on several wilderness and federal Forest Plan proposals. A new IGS Bulletin
31 was published in early 2019 with results of a multi-year, multi-collaborator investigation into
the geology, hydrothermal alteration, and timing of gold-antimony-tungsten mineralization of the
Stibnite Mining District. Also in 2019, as noted, the Survey celebrated its 100th Anniversary and
inducted a new State Geologist.

--- PAGE 1 ---
Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Mark Barton

Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-02

        Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

     University of Idaho
Updated April 2025

   Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

--- PAGE 2 ---

Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Mark Barton

Staff Reports present timely information for
public distribution. This publication may not
conform to the agency’s standards.

Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-02

        Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

     University of Idaho
Updated April 2025

   Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

--- PAGE 3 ---

Contents
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….… 4
Metal Mining ………………………………………………………………………… 7

Coeur d’Alene and Murray Districts ……………………………………………..7

Other Metal Mining ………………………………………………………….….10
Phosphate Mining …………………………………………………………………..…...11
Other Industrial Minerals …………………………………………………………….…13
Energy Resources………………………………………………………………………..13
Mineral Exploration ……………………………..……………………………………...16

North Idaho and Western Idaho ………………………………………………...17

Yellow Pine Area, Valley County …………………………………………… 18

Salmon Area, Lemhi County ………………………………………………… 19

Eastern Idaho …………………………………………….…………………..….23

Southwest Idaho .…………………………………………………………….….25

Illustrations
Figure 1. Total value of Idaho’s non-fuel mineral production, 2009 - 2021.…… 5
Figure 2. Idaho silver production, 1978 – 2020..… 6
Figure 3. Location of active mines and plants, 2021 7
Figure 4. Underground drilling at the Galena mine in 2000 …………...……….,,,.… 8
Figure 5. Exploration targets at the Galena mine, 2021 …… ….…………...……….…9
Figure 6. Gold-quartz vein underground, Golden Chest mine, 2020……….. ………….10
Figure 7. Location map of Idaho phosphate mines and plants..…….……………..… 11
Figure 8. Rasmussen Valley phosphate mine, 2021……………………………….… 12
Figure 9. Location map of industrial mineral operations, 2021..………….……..….…..14
Figure 10. Cope sand and gravel pit, 2020 ……………………………………… 15
Figure 11. Location map of mineral exploration projects, 2021…… …..………… 16
Figure 12. Underground drilling and core, Bunker Hill mine, 2020.……………………17
Figure 13. Simplified geologic map of Salmon area with mapping projects
                  and cobalt and REE occurrences, 2020.………………………………….….20
Figure 14. Core drilling at Revival’s Beartrack gold mine project, 2020……….….…...21
Figure 15. New East and West portals at ICO, December 2021.………… ……… 22
Figure 16. Map of chargeability results from survey at Iron Creek, 2020 ……………...23
Figure 17. Alteration at reclaimed Champagne mine, Lava Creek district, 2021 ………24
Figure 18. New Rangefront discovery at Black Pine gold project, 2021 ……………….25
Figure 19. Drill core with bonanza-grade silver from Florida Mountain, 2021 ………...26

--- PAGE 4 ---

Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021

Virginia S. Gillerman, Idaho Geological Survey
Earl H. Bennett, retired, Idaho Geological Survey
Mark Barton, Idaho Geological Survey

INTRODUCTION

The year 2020 will be known as the “Covid year” due to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic to
the world and Idaho in early 2020. The Idaho mineral industry, like everyone, scrambled to find
ways to cope with effects of the global pandemic. Mining was classified as a “critical industry,”
but it still needed to keep workers safe and productive at underground mines, open-pits and
quarries and plants. By the second half of 2020, operations had implemented innovative ways to
keep operating under Covid protocols, and by the end of 2020 and into 2021, Idaho mining was
at essentially full production and mineral exploration companies were very busy with a return to
grass roots exploration as well as drilling several advanced projects.

An added but positive incentive was Idaho’s 8th place survey ranking in the investment
attractiveness category of the Fraser Institute in 2019. This category is a combination of mineral
potential and public perception, and the high ranking relative to dozens of country and state
jurisdictions brought renewed attention to Idaho and its mineral industry. This staff report
summarizes developments in the minerals and energy sectors for the calendar years of 2020 and
2021. Additional details and photographs are in the supplemental material for this report which is
available on the Mines and Minerals page of the Idaho Geological Survey (IGS) website:
www.idahogeology.org.

The actual value of Idaho’s mineral production during this period varied due to pandemic effects
and the strike at the Lucky Friday mine which ended in January 2020. The Lucky Friday mine
ramped up to full production by the end of 2020. For Idaho, the U.S. Geological Survey reported
a value of non-fuel mineral production in 2020 of $553 million. In 2021, the value for Idaho was
listed at $655 million. These updated “final” values differ significantly from the preliminary
numbers available in the annual Mineral Commodity Summary (MCS) publications. Because of
legal concerns over proprietary information, the individual commodity production values are no

--- PAGE 5 ---
longer available to state surveys or the general pu
production value is shown in Figure 1. Ten comm
2021 for Idaho. They were: feldspar, garnet (ind
pumice, sand and gravel (industrial), silver, and z
silver, are Idaho’s most important and well-know
states, Idaho’s mineral production value ranked 3
USGS tabulation. Value added by in-state proces
USGS values.
IDAHO NON-FUEL MI
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000

600,000
400,000
200,000

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20
Figure 1. Total value of non-fuel mineral product
on data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Metal and commodity prices dictate production ta
of exploration activity. In 2020, precious metal p
for gold and $24 per ounce for silver. The silver m
with futures prices just over $30 per ounce for a s
ounce range for the first half of 2021 before trend
Gold was less volatile, staying close to $1,900 an
two precious metals were high and stable relative
Cu) prices reached a low in early 2020 but rose s
over $4 per pound. On the other hand, molybdenu
the period but jumped to near $20 per pound in th
pattern; its price skyrocketed in 2021 to $20 per p

ublic. A timeline of the total non-fuel mineral
modities were only reported as “concealed” in
dustrial), lead, lime, perlite, phosphate rock,
zeolites. Two of those, phosphate rock and
wn mineral commodities. Relative to the other
36th in 2020 and 35th in 2021, based on the
ssing of phosphate rock is not included in the
NERAL PRODUCTION
14 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
YEAR
tion in Idaho for the period 2009 to 2021, based
argets at operating mines and influence the level
prices were in the $1,900 per troy ounce range
market reached an 8-year high in March 2021
short time. Silver traded in the $25 per troy
ding lower to about $22 per ounce by year’s end.
n ounce for most of 2021. Prices levels of the
e to historical trends. Base metal (Pb, Zn, and
steadily throughout 2021 with copper reaching
um stayed low (circa $10 per pound) for most of
he second half of 2021. Cobalt showed a similar
pound by July and closed the year over $30 per

--- PAGE 6 ---
pound. The result in Idaho was a staking rush in the Idaho Cobalt belt in 2021-2022. Neodymium
prices showed a similar pattern. The commodity price increases in 2021 were in part a
consequence of increased global economic activity following the pandemic-related slump in
2020.
Idaho is historically one of the nation’s top silver producers. In 2021, the IGS collaborated with
mines in the Coeur d’Alene district to tabulate silver production for the past 20 years and prior.
GeoNote 47 was published by IGS in 2022 and records mine production in the Coeur d’Alene
District, 2000 – 2020. It is available for download at https://www.idahogeology.org/product/G47 . Figure 2 shows Idaho silver production and silver prices for the period 1978 – 2000. It
demonstrates the variable production and the common lag time or mismatch when higher
production coincides with lower metal prices. This cyclic industry pattern can inhibit a
company’s ability to reinvest profits back into a mine in the form of exploration drilling or
infrastructure improvements.
Another highlight of 2021 was the increased awareness both globally and at the federal
government of the importance of critical minerals to the forthcoming “green economy” and their
use in many renewable power sources, electrification, consumer electronics, and high-tech
defense applications. Rare earths, cobalt, antimony, copper and even zinc, are all commodities
which have been produced in Idaho historically and were of great interest to government and
exploration companies.
Figure 3 shows the location of active mines and plants in 2021. The Coeur d’Alene district in
Shoshone County in north Idaho and the Phosphate district of southeastern Idaho are Idaho’s two
world-class districts. Both have operated for over 100 years.
Idaho Silver Production (1978 - 2020)
20,000,000 40
18,000,000

)E
16,000,000 G
30 A R
)S 14,000,000 E V
A
E C N 12,000,000 25 L A
U U
O N
Y
10,000,000 20 N
A
O
R ,D
T (
G
A 6

0 15 S U

E
C
10 IR
4,000,000 P
G
A

2,000,000
0 0
8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0
7 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2
9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Figure 2. Idaho silver production and commodity price, 1978 – 2020. Compiled by IGS from
USBM and company data. Price is yearly average from kitco.com.

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[/TABLE]

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METAL MINING

COEUR D’ALENE AND MURRAY DISTRICTS

Figure 3. Location of active mines and plants in 2021. Yellow dots are small gold mines; the
dark purple square is the inactive Thompson Creek mine; the black cross hair is for oil and gas
production, and the blue triangle indicates a geothermal power plant.

The big news in the Coeur d’Alene district, also known as the Silver Valley, was the end in
January 2020 of the 2½ year-long strike at Hecla’s Lucky Friday mine in Mullan. The strike had
commenced on March 14, 2017. By a narrow vote of United Steelworkers Local 5114, the
mineworkers approved a settlement between Hecla and the union which allowed 164 miners to
return to work. Hecla ramped up operations quickly with a goal of full production by the end of
2020. Hecla had been working with a Swedish company, Epiroc, to test a remote vein miner, but

--- PAGE 8 ---

Covid delayed bringing it to the US, and a test was conducted in a Swedish limestone mine. The
machine is essentially a longwall miner turned vertical. Hecla’s geologists also updated their 3-D
geologic and structural models by digitizing older hand-drawn geologic maps and drilling closely
spaced exploration core holes to examine the stratigraphy in more detail. The mine produced
2,031,874 troy ounces of silver in 2020 and 3,564,128 troy ounces in 2021 according to Hecla’s
annual report. The mine staff was also testing a new long hole blasting method which they called
underhand closed bench (UCB) mining. Production at the Lucky Friday was from the steeply
dipping Gold Hunter quartz-siderite-sulfide vein system.
Americas Gold and Silver Corporation operated the Galena mine and mill but production was
greatly reduced because of the new joint venture. With the influx of capital from the 2019 joint
venture with Eric Sprott, the mine focused on rehabilitation efforts on the 4300 and 5500 levels
and an extensive exploration program. The company purchased a new Hagby 1000 drill to use
for the exploration work (Fig. 4). The Galena’s geologists and drill crews completed over 48,000
feet of diamond drilling in 2020 and 120,000 feet in 2021on Phase 1 and the start of Phase 2.
Over 7,500 feet of drift was rehabilitated, and work commenced to replace the hoist and
purchase new equipment.

Figure 4. Underground drilling at the Galena mine, 2000, with their new Hagby drill.

--- PAGE 9 ---

Actual production at the mine was down due to the combined effects of Covid and the needed
rehabilitation work and exploration emphasis. Silver production at the Galena was probably less
than 1 million ounces per year in both 2020 and 2021. The exploration effort was very
successful; it increased the proven and probable reserve by 38%, and the measured and indicated
resource by 72% as of mid-2021 with work on multiple vein targets from several levels during
Phase 1 (Fig. 5). A new discovery on the Silver vein included a 2.8-foot intercept of 22 oz./ton
Ag and 0.7% Cu in hole 55-144.

Figure 5. Targets of the Galena mine exploration in 2021. The mine has both silver-copper
(tetrahedrite-rich) veins and lead-silver veins with silver-bearing galena. The new discovery is
labelled Ag. HW vein in the deeper levels of the mine.

Rich gold placer and lode deposits at Murray in north Idaho were discovered in 1883, bringing
prospectors who soon traveled south a few miles to discover the silver-lead lodes of the Coeur
d’Alene district proper along the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. Since 2016, an Idahobased company, Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc., formerly named New Jersey Mining Company,
has mined gold from their Golden Chest mine at Murray. The Golden Chest open pit and
underground mine worked a series of gold-quartz veins adjacent to the Idaho fault (Fig. 6). The
veins are interpreted as either an orogenic system or possibly related to igneous activity. The
Idaho Pit ceased operations in 2020 after producing 121,300 metric tons of ore at an average
gold grade of 3.12 g/t gold and an additional 101,700 tonnes of lower grade stockpile. The
company was transitioning to a new area and raised $2.7 million in 2020 to drill down dip on the
Idaho vein. They also solidified their land position in the Murray district. In 2021, they increased
tonnage mined and discovered new high-grade shoots on the Klondike and other veins by
completing 25 core holes for 6,507 meters of drilling. The Golden Chest ore is sent to their New
Jersey mill at Kellogg.

--- PAGE 10 ---

Figure 6. Gold-quartz vein underground at the Golden Chest mine, 2020.

OTHER METAL MINING

A Finnish company, Endomines, had reopened the small Friday mine along the Orogrande shear
zone near Elk City in Idaho County. They did ship out gold concentrate in early 2020 but
continued to have start up issues at the mill and closed down. They reopened again in 2021. Gold
mineralization is associated with zones of intense shearing and sericitization between or near the
Friday fault and another structure, the Monday fault. The company had also acquired other pastproducing small precious metal mines in the state, including the Kimberly mine near Riggins, the
Rescue mine at Warren, and the Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood properties near Elk City.
The large Thompson Creek molybdenum mine in Custer County remained on extended care and
maintenance following its closure in December 2014. The previously permitted Phase 8 resource
remained in situ. The large concentrator was being used for limited beneficiation of concentrates
from 3rd parties in 2020.

--- PAGE 11 ---

PHOSPHATE MINING

The southeast Idaho phosphate district is regarded as the state’s second “world-class” mining
district (Fig. 7). Three large open pit mines and plants extract and process phosphate rock of the
Meade Peak member of the Permian Phosphoria Formation. Phosphorus is a component of the
mineral apatite, and the strata are also enriched in C, V, U, Mo, Se, and rare earth elements
(REEs). Phosphorites are associated with phosphatic black shales. According to the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management (BLM), the primary regulatory authority for the mines, southeast Idaho
supplied 22% of the nation’s phosphate and 4% of global demand in 2020, and the mining
industry there supported 4,500 jobs. An estimated 4-5 million short tons per year are mined.

Figure 7. Location map of Idaho phosphate mines (ovals) and plants (squares). Mines are colored
red if active or in permitting; green ovals if reclaimed.

J.R. Simplot Co. mined in the F and G panels at its Smoky Canyon mine near the Idaho –
Wyoming border. Reclamation in the F1North pit was ongoing to segregate leachable Se from
benign waste rock. The seleniferous material is covered to limit infiltration of oxidized water and
reduce environmental impacts. A Record of Decision was released in July 2020 for a new mine
panel at the East Smoky site; that will extend the mine life. Development work for mining East
Smoky was active in 2021. On April 7, 2020, a Record of Decision to allow mining at the Dairy
Syncline property was released by the BLM. The Dairy Syncline project covers 2,767 acres and
would have a 30-year mine-life; it will require moving the mine facilities when the Smoky
Canyon mine nears the end of its mine life. Ore from Smoky goes by slurry line to Simplot’s
Don Plant in Pocatello where it is transformed into a variety of phosphoric acid fertilizers.
Bayer and its mining partner, P4, operated the Blackfoot Bridge mine. Bayer had purchased
Monsanto and its phosphate operations in 2018. They were mining in the Mid-pit and backfilling

--- PAGE 12 ---

and reclaiming the North-pit. In 2020, Bayer drilled 54 holes for over 10,000 feet at its newly
permitted (August 2019) Caldwell Canyon property. The company also started construction on a
haul road connecting Caldwell to the closed Dry Vally mine, and they were building HDPE-lined
stockpile areas and water management facilities. Caldwell Canyon is a large site with an
expected 40-year mine-life. Most of the land is private and owned by P4, but there are 160 acres
of federal land. However, on April 27, 2021, a lawsuit was filed against the BLM by three
environmental NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who claimed the EIS analysis of sage
grouse and potential selenium contamination was flawed. No stay was issued, and construction
work continued while the litigation progressed in court. One complaint was that proposed mine
is part of the “greater Yellowstone area” and ecosystem, though Yellowstone Park is
approximately 110 air-miles and several mountain ranges away from the proposed mine. Bayer’s
ore feeds their elemental phosphorus plant in Soda Springs, which is the only such facility in
North America. The elemental product goes into its trade-marked Roundup herbicide and a
variety of food and chemical products.
Itafos, who purchased Agrium’s phosphate leases in 2018, is the third major company in the
district. They had a challenging 2020 as they started mining the Rasmussen Valley mine in
addition to completing mining of the private Lanes Creek lease. By 2021, mining operations at
Rasmussen Valley were well underway (Fig. 8) and the company welcomed a tour by IGS
geologists to review the exposed geology and stratigraphy. Mined areas are concurrently
backfilled.

Figure 8. Rasmussen Valley mine in August 2021 with blasthole rig on left and shovel and truck
at lower right. White spots are sample bags to analyze ore bed values.

--- PAGE 13 ---

Itafos also completed reclamation work in 2021 at both Lanes Creek and the South Rasmussen
Ridge mine, which it inherited from Agrium. The company was also permitting the Husky
1/North Dry Ridge project, a proposed new, 14-year mine on 1,145 acres. A Draft EIS was
released on October 22, 2021, by the BLM/USFS.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MINERALS

Numerous Idaho quarries and pits extract other industrial minerals, including pumice, industrial
garnet, lime, dimension stone, feldspar, gemstones, zeolites, and most importantly aggregate
(Fig. 9). Business was a bit slower but still strong through the pandemic of 2020 to 2021.
Treasure Canyon Calcium submitted a plan to expand their limestone quarry in Franklin County
to public land in mid-2020. Steelhead, a producer of zeolites along the Oregon-Idaho border, was
sold to PDZ. Emerald Creek Garnet, now owned by Opta Minerals Inc., continued to mine
alluvial garnets, though the US Forest Service tourist garnet dig was closed due to Covid. Also in
north Idaho, i-Minerals submitted an amended plan of operations and reclamation to the Idaho
Department of Lands in September 2020. The company released a pre-feasibility study for a
smaller clay-only operation at the Bovill project in Latah County in March 2020. Hess Pumice
reported a good year for their pumice and perlite business in 2021. Oakley stone producers in
Cassia County were hit hard in 2020 by the Covid pandemic and federal visa restrictions which
prohibited workers from starting until the seasonal quarry work was almost over.
Aggregate, principally sand and gravel, along with some crushed stone, was one of Idaho’s top
five commodities by value. In southwestern Idaho, three new pits were approved, with additional
leases requested. The value of construction sand and gravel extracted in Idaho jumped from $118
million in 2018 to $158 million in 2019 and rose to $169 million in 2020 and $179 million in
2021, according to data from the USGS. Values of crushed stone also rose 24% from 2019 to
2021. Increased housing construction and roadwork, particularly in the Treasure Valley of
southwestern Idaho, drove the demand for new aggregate sources (Fig. 10). The Idaho
Department of Lands maintained over 100 reclamation plans for gravel pits and quarries across
the state, and it received $1.1 million in royalties from operations on state lands in fiscal year
2019.

ENERGY RESOURCES
SOUTHWEST IDAHO OIL AND GAS ACTIVITY
On January 24, 2020, High Mesa, Inc., and its subsidiaries, including AM Idaho, LLC, filed for
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas. Prior to
this filing, Snake River Oil & Gas LLC notified the Department of Lands that they would
assume operations for properties previously managed by AM Idaho LLC.

--- PAGE 14 ---

In the spring of 2020, six wells drilled by Bridge Resources in 2010—Espino #1-2, State #1-17,
ML Investments #1-10, Island Capitol #1-19, White #1-10, and Korn #1-22—were plugged and
abandoned. Later, in the fall of 2021, two new exploration wells, Harmon 2-14 and Fallon 1-11,
were drilled near Payette. Both wells were completed following production tests that indicated
commercial accumulations of wet gas at depths between 3,600 and 4,000 feet.
Due to falling oil and gas prices and disruptions caused by Covid pandemic, Snake River Oil and
Gas decided to shut in the field effective March 20, 2020. By mid-December 2020, five wells in
Willow Field were returned to production. Additionally, the Barlow 1-14 well began production,
marking the first output from Harmon Field since its discovery in 2018. Together, these six wells
produced an average of 4 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMCFGD), 42 barrels of condensate
per day (BCPD), and 6 barrels of water per day (BWPD).

Figure 9. Location of industrial mineral operations, excluding phosphate rock and aggregate, in
Idaho for 2020 – 2021.

--- PAGE 15 ---

Figure 10. Cope Sand and Gravel Pit, Canyon County, March 2020.

--- PAGE 16 ---

MINERAL EXPLORATION

The first half of 2020 was slow due to Covid, the resulting uncertainty and lower metal prices.
Prices started to rise significantly midway through the year and continued into 2021. Thus, the
overall 2020 – 2021 period was quite busy with numerous active exploration projects (Fig. 11).
Both gold and critical minerals were of particular interest.

Figure 11. Location of mineral exploration in Idaho, 2021. Green boxes are for industrial
minerals; blue triangles are geothermal; black crosshair is for oil and gas. Red dots or boxes are
all other commodities.

--- PAGE 17 ---

NORTH IDAHO AND WESTERN IDAHO

Bunker Hill Mining Corporation negotiated with owner Placer Mining Corporation to reduce the
option price by 30% on the Bunker Hill mine on the west end of the Coeur d’Alene district. The
company did 3-D modelling of the historic stopes, the known 8-million-ton Quill zinc-rich
orebody, and to define other targets. The mine was open for 95 years, and there were 3,500
historic drill holes to input in the model. In 2020, Bunker drilled ten core holes from surface and
underground (Fig. 12). In 2021, they completed 16 core holes, totaling 3000 feet, from
underground on the 9-level and a 23-line IP/resistivity survey at the surface. With the higher
silver price, Bunker Hill focused more on the silver content of the lead-zinc veins. The company
also worked on a water management plan which is a necessary component of their rapid restart
goal. The company completed a 43-101 report and a favorable preliminary economic analysis
(PEA) for a rapid restart of the mine above the water table.

Figure 12. Drilling underground at the Bunker Hill mine, 2020. Hole DDH # 7035A intercepted
1.5 m at 648 g/t Ag and 8% Pb; core is shown in the top photo.

--- PAGE 18 ---

Silver Valley Metals acquired the Ranger-Page project located just west of the Bunker Hill mine
in 2021. Several historic mines and multiple target opportunities were identified on the property
which has had little prior exploration.
The Silver Strand mine is located closer to the city of Coeur d’Alene and west of the main Silver
Valley. The mine, which was explored several years ago by New Jersey Mining Company, was
driven on a quartz vein hosted in Revett Quartzite. A small company, Silver Hammer Mining
Corp., formerly Lakewood Exploration, explored the property in 2021 for its precious metal
potential. Grab samples from the underground adit assayed as much as 2744 g/t Ag and 4.8 g/t
Au. Silver Hammer did minor rehabilitation work on the adit and started a drill program in
October 2021 to test the veins below the adit level. Drilling used a wooden platform for less
ground disturbance.
The Elk City area hosts large placer gold deposits and several lode deposits along the Orogrande
shear zone which extends north-south for 20 kilometers. Idaho Champion was one of several
small companies exploring the area in 2020. Outcrop is poor, but the geology generally consists
of metamorphic rocks, intruded by the Idaho batholith and small Tertiary plugs. Idaho Champion
acquired the old Baner mine and conducted a 2018 drill program based on IP work. An $8
million financing package in 2020 allowed additional work including soil geochemistry and
mapping as well as 2,200 meters of core drilling. Drilling intersected gold-bearing quartz-pyrite
veins in altered and fractured granodiorite. The Baner mine is on a subsidiary structure to the
Orogrande shear zone.
For the first time in decades, there was exploration interest within the western Idaho accreted
terranes. In 2021 a small company, Bald Eagle Gold Corp. acquired the shares of Anglo-Bomarc,
US, Inc., which had held claims for many years at the Hercules Silver Property in Washington
County. From 1965to 1988, Anglo-Bomarc completed considerable drilling of the 866-hectare
property on the west side of Cuddy Mountain. From the extensive surface work and drilling,
Anglo-Bomarc delineated a shallow silver resource within the Hercules Rhyolite values in the
300 to 950 g/t Ag range. Maps and files from the historic work were later donated to the Idaho
Geological Survey. In mid-2022, Bald Eagle changed their name to Hercules Silver Corporation.
Another small company, Constantine, was rumored to be exploring for volcanogenic massive
sulfides in the accreted terranes.

YELLOW PINE AREA, VALLEY COUNTY

Permitting for Midas Gold’s proposed Stibnite gold-antimony mine was ongoing and a topic of
significant interest and importance for Idaho’s mining industry in 2020 – 2021. The Plan of
Restoration and Operations (PRO) calls for mining the resource of 4 to 5 million troy ounces of
gold plus significant antimony as a way of paying for the clean-up and restoration of the
brownfields site which supplied antimony and tungsten for military efforts in World War I and
World War II. The Payette Forest released a Draft EIS in August 2020 followed by a 75-day
public comment period on the plan for three open pits, a $1 billion capital expenditure, 15-year
project life, and restoration of fish passage up the East Fork of the South Fork Salmon River at

--- PAGE 19 ---

the end of the mine. Paulsen and Company investors purchased a substantial stake in the
company in early 2020. The proven and probable reserve on the project was 4.8 million troy
ounces of gold (at 1.43 g/t Au grade) plus 148 million pounds of antimony.
A large number of public comments on the project were received, and the analysis prompted
Midas Gold and the Forest Service to write a supplemental EIS to address a modified mine plan.
That document was anticipated to be released in 2022. In February 2021, Midas changed its
name to Perpetua Resources and moved the corporate headquarters to Boise. They negotiated an
agreement with Ambri to use the antimony for manufacturing batteries. They also reached an
agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to initiate pre-mining emergency
removal actions designed to remediate historic World War II era waste and tailings that were
affecting waterways. Another issue was the Nez Perce tribe’s new declaration that mine
development would violate their treaty rights for fishing and potentially degrade water quality.
Just to the west of Stibnite and south of the town of Yellow Pine, Stallion Gold worked on their
Horse Heaven project located along the Golden Gate Shear zone on Antimony Ridge, another
historic antimony-gold-tungsten producer. IGS files contain considerable historical data on the
property. Stallion’s claims go back to 2012. As at Stibnite, several geologic models, including
intrusion-related gold and orogenic-style veins, were being assessed during exploration.

SALMON AREA, LEMHI COUNTY

In 2020 -2021, the region around the town of Salmon was a hotbed of exploration activity. Three
principal commodity groups were of interest: cobalt-copper, gold and rare earth elements
(REEs). Geologic settings in Lemhi County vary from Mesoproterozoic metamorphosed clastic
sedimentary rocks and bimodal igneous suites to Paleozoic and Cretaceous intrusions to Tertiary
volcanics and orogenic-style veins. The combination has generated one of Idaho’s most
mineralized and prospected regions with multiple target types and mineral deposits (Fig. 13).

--- PAGE 20 ---

Figure 13. Simplified geologic map of the Salmon area with outlines of STATEMAP-funded
mapping quadrangles in 2020 and locations of rare earth and cobalt occurrences.

In 2020 – 2021, only surface mapping and sampling were completed on the REE prospects in
Lemhi County. New Jersey Mining expanded their interests by acquiring the Diamond Creek and
Roberts claims north of Salmon and west of North Fork, respectively.
Near the old placer town of Leesburg, Revival Gold implemented a 10,000-meter diamond drill
program at their Beartrack mine and adjacent Arnett Creek gold properties, abbreviated as
BTAC. The Beartrack gold mine (Fig. 13), formerly operated by Meridian Gold, is along a
hydrothermal system that extends over 5 km along strike. Revival had three drill rigs working to
infill mineralization between the historic pits and ran a new IP-Resistivity survey combined with
new structural mapping (Fig. 14). Mineralization is localized along the north-south Coiner Fault
and the adjacent northeast-trending Panther Creek regional lineament, newly interpreted as part
of a single structural zone. Revival’s new 43-101 resource, released in February 2020, was 36 Mt
indicated resource at 1.16 g/t Au plus another 47 Mt inferred at Beartrack. Revival’s second
target was the nearby Arnett Creek property. In 2020 they drilled 30 holes and conducted 65
line-km of IP-Resistivity. In November, they released a Preliminary Economic Analysis for a
Phase 1 leach operation at Arnett. Oxidized gold mineralization is hosted in a Paleozoic intrusive
complex.
Work at BTAC continued in 2021 with an additional 20 core holes drilled for 4,880 meters.
Fifteen of those were at the Haidee mine at Arnett Creek and five were at the Joss area on the

--- PAGE 21 ---

south end of the Beartrack system. Intercepts on deep mineralization at Joss assayed 4 to 12 g/t
Au. Gold mineralization is hosted in highly sheared and altered Yellowjacket Formation host
rocks.

Figure 14. Core drilling at Revival’s Beartrack gold mine project, 2020.

Freeman Gold explored for gold at their Lemhi Gold Project by North Fork north of the town of
Salmon. The property includes historic placers and was drilled by FMC and AGR in the late
1980s as the Ditch Creek or Humbug oxide gold projects. Freeman added new claims and drilled
16 core holes for 3,328 meters in 2020. Visible gold was noted in core from several holes. They
returned the following year and finished with 35 holes for 7,149 meters drilled into quartz-veined
and highly faulted quartzites. Freeman found and sampled a new zone of mineralization to the
west and released an NI 43-101 report in July 2021.
Several smaller gold projects were acquired and drilled in 2020 – 2021. Most of these explored
historic, high-grade, underground mines without recent exploration. Companies and projects
included Gaia Metals drilling four core holes at their Gold Dyke property near Carmen and
Freeman Creeks northeast of Salmon, Hawkstone Mining at the Lone Pine project near the King
Solomon mine, US Gold at Johnny’s Point on Musgrove Creek, and Ophir Gold at the Breccia
project near the historic Gahsmith mine south of Musgrove Creek. Ophir discovered a silicified
breccia zone in 2020 and planned a 3,200-meter drill program in 2021 along with a CSAMT
geophysical survey. Gold mineralization there is part of a low sulfidation, epithermal system
along Musgrove Creek.

--- PAGE 22 ---

The Idaho Cobalt belt is a northwest-trending, 55-km long linear belt defined by multiple
copper-cobalt occurrences. The deposits are all hosted in banded or coarse siltite members of the
Mesoproterozoic Apple Creek Formation, suggesting a first-order stratigraphic control, though
many details of the genesis are uncertain. The Blackbird district was the largest historic producer
of copper and cobalt and is the location of Jervois Mining’s wholly owned Idaho Cobalt
Operation (ICO). Mineralization is present as cobaltite plus chalcopyrite. The fully permitted
ICO was acquired from eCobalt in 2019 to mine the RAM deposit discovered in 1997 by eCobalt
(formerly Formation Capital Corp.). The 2020 43-101 report listed a Measured and Indicated
resource of 5.24 Mt at 0.44% Co, 0.69% Cu, and 0.53 g/t Au plus additional inferred material
and exploration potential at the ICO. Jervois released a bankable feasibility study in 2020 and
started mill design and renewed initial construction. In 2021, the construction was approved and
additional facilities, including mill foundations, tailings storage facilities, portal benches and
components were being built. In mid-October, Jervois blasted the first round to open the West
Portal for the new underground mine, where they anticipated initial production in 2022 (Fig. 15).
Figure 15. New East and West portals at ICO, December 2021.

On the southeast end of the Idaho Cobalt belt, First Cobalt, a Canadian company had an
extensive drill program at Iron Creek in 2018-2019. The updated 43-101 resource from that work
was approximately 4.8 Mt at 0.3 % CoEq. In late 2020 the company completed an IP/Resistivity
survey over the property (Fig. 16). It was partly designed to trace mineralized zones under
Tertiary volcanic cover. They also sampled a newly recognized zone, named the Ruby, of
copper-cobalt mineralization on a logging road east of the No Name adit. Five-foot channel
samples of the Ruby roadcut assayed up to 0.48% cobalt, and the company doubled their land
position. Mineralization at Iron Creek is cobaltiferous pyrite with associated magnetite. They
drilled six core holes for 8,500 feet to the east and west of the Iron Creek resource to test
chargeability anomalies and continued metallurgical work with researchers at the Colorado
School of Mines (Fig. 16). In November 2021, First Cobalt changed its name to Electra Battery
Materials, to better reflect their ownership of a hydrometallurgical facility in Cobalt, Ontario.
Electra plans to make battery grade Co-sulfate needed for the Li-ion batteries used in electric
vehicles (EVs).

--- PAGE 23 ---

Figure 16. Map of chargeability results from survey over the Iron Creek property in 2020. From
a press release and corporate presentation by First Cobalt. Numbers refer to specific anomalies to
be tested.

EASTERN IDAHO

Two epithermal precious metal districts were being explored in eastern Idaho during 2020 -
2021. Excellon Resources acquired Otis Gold in February 2020. The all-shares acquisition
included the Kilgore project in Clark County and the Oakley project in Cassia County. Kilgore,
which hosts a 1-million-ounce gold resource, is a young volcanic and sediment-hosted system.
The Oakley claims at Cold and Blue Hill Creeks were optioned to Centerra Gold. In late 2021,
Excellon received a permit for additional drilling at Kilgore.
On the north edge of the eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho Champion acquired claims over the
Champagne gold mine in Butte County, a few miles west of Arco. The open pit mine was
operated by Bema in the early 1990s as a heap leach operation, and it closed in late 1992. Idaho
Champion started a 5,000-meter drill program and conducted surface geophysics and
geochemistry. The deposit is hosted in altered Tertiary volcanic rocks with a high-sulfidation
signature, and one objective was to explore for a deep copper porphyry underneath the mine and
the Lava Creek district (Fig. 17). In 2021, they completed 10 diamond drill holes for 3,432

--- PAGE 24 ---

meters and added two IP lines. The geophysics detected a large chargeability anomaly, but it also
suggested the system was structurally detached. Initial drill results were compatible with
peripheral porphyry-style alteration.

Figure 17. View to northwest of the reclaimed Champagne mine, 2021, with argillic alteration.
Historic workings of the Lava Creek district are visible in the distance.

To the north of Arco is the historic mining town of Mackay in Custer County. Phoenix Copper
Ltd., formerly ExGen Resources and Konnex Resources, continued to explore the polymetallic
and copper skarns within a 23 sq. km claim block around the scenic Empire mine. In 2020,
Phoenix commenced a 32-hole program of mostly reverse circulation holes with a few core
holes; in 2021 they added another 4,500-meter program to test for deep sulfides below the pit.
They were working on a preliminary economic analysis for an open-pit, oxide copper mine as
well as hydrologic characterization and other environmental baseline studies. The late 2020
updated 43-101 resource included 238,000 ounces of Au, 7.6 M ounces of Ag, and good grades
of copper and zinc. They also explored a newly discovered prospect named Red Star.
Liberty Gold owns the flagship project in eastern Idaho at the Black Pine property in Cassia
County, and they had another extensive drill program in 2020 - 2021. Black Pine was mined by
Pegasus but closed in 1997 during low gold prices, and without conducting much district
exploration. Liberty drilled 46,000 meters in 2020 on the Carlin-type disseminated gold district
which covers 14 sq. km. They submitted an amended drill plan over 50 acres in January and had
3-4 drill rigs turning most of the year. Drilling in 2020 focused on the D-1 and D-2 areas and a
new discovery area, D-3. Initial metallurgical results were favorable, and the company started
looking for mine water supply sources. Drilling continued the next year with a 70,000-meter RC
program and that work intercepted a new discovery at the Rangefront target area, a down-faulted
pediment play (Fig. 18). In July 2021, Liberty released an initial indicated mineral resource of

--- PAGE 25 ---

1.7 million ounces gold at a grade of 0.5 g/t Au. The district geology consists of structurally
stacked plates of Oquirrh Formation clastic rocks and limestones.

Figure 18. View to southeast at new Black Pine Rangefront D-4 discovery, located
approximately with the white arrow, on flat, tan-colored flat area just at base of hills in leftcenter of photo. Hole LBP358 assayed 1.23 g/t Au over 24 m and 1.37 g/t Au over 50 m.

SOUTHWEST IDAHO

South Mountain in Owyhee County is an isolated peak with outcropping limestone and clastic
sedimentary rocks of presumed Paleozoic age intruded by felsic to intermediate plutons.
Mineralization includes a zinc skarn and high-grade replacement deposits, known largely for
their prized ilvaite crystals. Owner, Thunder Mountain Gold, optioned the private property to Be
Metals. Be Metals continued Phase 2 fall 2020 drilling program of 25 holes for 8,000 feet, all
drilled from underground workings. Drilling extended the length of the Texas zone and was
infilled the DMEA zone. Intercepts included up to 21% Zn plus precious metals over 15 meters.
In 2021, they added an additional 3,500 feet of core drilling from surface and started
metallurgical work and a preliminary economic analysis. Mineralization is open at depth.
Integra Resources kept three rigs busy most of 2020 at their large DeLamar project in Owyhee
County. The site of Kinross’ mine which closed in 1998, the classic epithermal Silver City
district includes three mineralized centers: DeLamar, Florida Mountain, and War Eagle

--- PAGE 26 ---

Mountain, from west to east, plus numerous greenfield targets referred to as the Black Sheep
area. Integra used 3D modelling to delineate ore types for engineering and metallurgy work and
conducted environmental baseline studies and water sampling. They also funded a 2-year
geologic mapping effort by the Idaho Geological Survey for two 7.5’ quadrangles encompassing
the area. In 2021, Integra drilled all year and continued permitting and engineering studies with a
goal of having a prefeasibility study (PFS) by the end of the year. The company evaluated heap
leach and milling options. Deep drilling under Florida Mountain intersected high-grade silver
mineralization like that described by the historic literature (Fig. 19). The geologic map of the
DeLamar and Swisher Mountain quadrangles was released by IGS in mid-2021 as DWM-193.

Figure 19. Drill core from FME-21_127 with 544’ – 545’ (red box, enlarged on right side)
assaying 28.3 g/t AuEq in crustiform quartz vein with Ag sulfide and pyrite infilling (yellow
circle enlargement). From Integra Resources drilling on Florida Mountain.

=== PAPER A — Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019 ===
Source: https://idahogeology.org/pub/Staff_Reports/S-23-01.pdf
Words: 7,093 | Pages: 26 | Method: pdfplumber+pymupdf
================================================================================

--- PAGE 1 ---
Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Alexis Clark
Mark Barton

       Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-01

       Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

    University of Idaho
Updated August 2025

  Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

--- PAGE 2 ---

Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Alexis Clark
Mark Barton

Staff Reports present timely information for
public distribution. This report may not
conform to the agency’s publication standards.

       Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-01

       Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

    University of Idaho
Updated August 2025

  Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

--- PAGE 3 ---

Table of Contents

Introduction …………………………………………………………………….……

Metal Mining ………………………………………………………………………………

Phosphate Mining ……………………………………………………………….…..…….. 10
Other Industrial Minerals ………………………………………………………………….

Energy Resources …...…………………………………………………………………….. 14
Mineral Exploration ……………………………..………………………………………...

State Activities 2018 – 2019 ..……………………………………………………………..

Figures

Figure 1. Value of Idaho’s non-fuel mineral production, 2010 - 2019….……

Figure 2. Location of active mining areas..…….…

Figure 3. Gold Hunter vein on 6200 level of the Lucky Friday mine ……………..…..…

Figure 4. Miners with Jumbo drill driving drift, Galena mine …………...…………...….

Figure 5. Location map of southeast Idaho Phosphate District….…………...………...… 11
Figure 6. Reclamation of F1 pit, Smoky Canyon mine…………………………...……… 12
Figure 7. Location map of industrial mineral operations, 2019…….……………….…

Figure 8. Geology and location map of Idaho’s hydrocarbon fields, 2018…..……….….. 15
Figure 9. Location map of exploration projects and areas, 2019..………….………….…. 17
Figure 10. Drilling at the Baner mine project, 2018 …………….…………………  18
Figure 11. Site overview of the Idaho Cobalt Project, October 2018 …..……………  21
Figure 12. Cobalt in soils map with IP targets at Colson project, June 2019…………..… 22
Figure 13. Blue chrysocolla and secondary copper in core, Empire mine, 2018.…...……

Figure 14. Core drilling at the Stone Cabin mine pit on Florida Mountain, 2019….…….. 24
Figure 15. Core with polymetallic sulfides, South Mountain, 2019………… ………... 25

--- PAGE 4 ---

Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2018-2019

Virginia S. Gillerman, Idaho Geological Survey
Earl H. Bennett, retired, Idaho Geological Survey
Alexis Clark, Idaho Geological Survey
Mark Barton, Idaho Geological Survey

INTRODUCTION

The years of 2018-2019 continued the general downward trend of mining activity and production
in Idaho. The state’s highest value of non-fuel mineral production was in 2011 when the large
Thompson Creek molybdenum mine was active. This staff report summarizes developments in the
calendar years of 2018 and 2019. Additional details and photographs are in the annual visual
presentations available on the Mines and Minerals page of the Idaho Geological Survey (IGS)
website:
https://www.idahogeology.org/geologic-resources/mines-minerals/current-historicmining-activity. Of special note in 2019 was the 100th anniversary of the Idaho Geological Survey,
which was started in 1919 in Moscow under the former name of Idaho Bureau of Mines and
Geology.

Figure 1 shows a graph of Idaho’s value of non-fuel mineral production totals for the period 2010
– 2019, as reported by the USGS. The numbers behind the graph are largely final but may contain
some preliminary or estimated values. As reported by the USGS, Idaho’s non-fuel mineral
production of raw ore was approximately $465 million in 2018 and $463 million in 2019. This is
about a $100 million drop from 2017. The decrease over several years is partly due to lower
commodity prices but also a decrease in ore tonnage mined from the Lucky Friday mine. The large
drop in value from 2014 to 2015 was a result of the termination of mining and conversion to care
and maintenance status at Thompson Creek. In both 2018 and 2019, the USGS ranks Idaho as 35th
by value, based on unadjusted State values. Industrial minerals make up about 85-90% of Idaho’s
value for the period 2018-2019. Active mine locations are shown in Figure 2.

--- PAGE 5 ---
Idaho Non-fuel Mineral
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000
s

0 600,000

400,000
200,000

2010f 2011f 2012f 2013f
Metals $
Figure 1. Value of Idaho non-fuel mineral produc
year’s data are from final (f) statistics, with som
indicated in blue, while the difference between th
minerals.
Final revised production values for Idaho nonperiod have not yet become publicly available fro
the best available data from the USGS was inclu
21-02 covering the years 2016-2017. Final 2018 a
https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-i
Production values for ten of Idaho’s mined comm
not released individually. The total combined val
category was $254 million in 2019 and $299 mi
following commodities: feldspar, garnet (industr
pumice and pumicite, sand and gravel (industrial)
of phosphate rock, construction sand and gravel, c
values are concealed, it is difficult to fully recon
USGS; some data may be preliminary. Companyin the Coeur d’Alene District is available in the
years 2000 – 2020. As can be seen in the actual p
in production of silver and base metals from Hecl
due to a labor strike at the mine. Limited producti
but overall, the 2018 – 2019 metal values were si

Production (USGS data)
2014f 2015f 2016f 2017 2018pf 2019pf
Year
$ Total $
ction, based on USGS data by year. Most of the
me preliminary (p) values for 2019. Metals are
he blue and the red (total value) is from industrial
-fuel mineral production during the 2016-2017
om the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), although
uded in the Idaho Geological Survey Staff Report
and 2019 data can be found on the USGS website:
information-center/mineral-industry-idaho
modities are considered as “concealed” data and
lue of the ten Idaho commodities in the concealed
illion in 2018. That combined value includes the
rial), lead, lime, perlite (crude), phosphate rock,
), silver, and zeolites. Idaho is a leading producer
crushed stone, silver and lead. As several of those
ncile annual mineral value totals reported by the
-published production data for north Idaho mines
e Idaho Geological Survey’s GeoNote 47 for the
production data, a notable event was the decrease
la’s Lucky Friday mine for 2017 – 2019; this was
ion was supplied by the salaried level employees,
ignificantly down for the mine.

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[/TABLE]

--- PAGE 6 ---

For 2018 – 2019, gold and silver prices were stable to moderately rising by late 2019 when spot
prices reached close to $1460 per troy ounce for gold and $17 per troy ounce for silver. Rare earth
prices also seemed to be on an upswing, possibly due to geopolitical influences. Base metals were
showing cyclical to downward trends. The molybdenum spot price was in the doldrums at close to
$10 per pound in late 2019. Cobalt prices were more volatile and interesting. The spot price of
cobalt spiked to just over $40 per pound in the summer of 2018 after rising for a year, before it
sharply declined and was down to about $16 per pound in November 2019. However, the price
spike prompted a staking rush in the Idaho Cobalt belt at the end of 2017 into 2018.

Figure 2. Location of active mines and plants in 2018 and 2019. Both the Coeur d’Alene district
and the Phosphate district have been operating for over 100 years. Yellow dots are small gold
mines. The open square indicates the inactive Thompson Creek mine; the black cross hair is for
oil and gas production, and the blue triangle indicates a geothermal power plant.

--- PAGE 7 ---

METAL MINING

COEUR D’ALENE AND MURRAY DISTRICTS
North Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene District, also known as the Silver Valley, has mined silver along
with lead, zinc, copper, and antimony since 1884 from structurally-controlled, quartz-sideritesulfide veins in deformed Mesoproterozoic Belt Basin metasedimentary rocks. The world-class
district in Shoshone County is credited with over 1.24 billion troy ounces of silver. In 2018 – 2019
the north Idaho region was home to Idaho’s metal mining industry.
Hecla Mining Company, operator of the Lucky Friday mine at Mullan, celebrated its 125th birthday
in 2016. Hecla started in the Silver Valley in 1891 and has a large property position in the district.
Current production has been from the Gold Hunter vein system (Fig. 3), accessed off the new #4
internal shaft located about a mile west of the surface hoist in the Silver Shaft. The #4 shaft is
collared at the 4900 level and was completed in 2016 to the 8620 level, making it one of the deepest
in the hemisphere at 9,587 feet below land surface. In 2016, the mine produced 3.6 million ounces
of silver, but in March 2017, the miners went out on strike, partly over demands to control their
own work assignments and shifts. The USW Local 5114 remained on strike for the remainder of
2017, and all of 2018 and 2019. Salaried employees performed limited mining and milling during
the strike, but production was down significantly. Only 169,041 troy ounces of silver were
extracted in 2018 and 632,944 troy ounces silver in 2019. Hecla investigated acquiring a Swedishbuilt remote vein miner machine during the work stoppage. In November 2019, a tentative
settlement was reached between Hecla and the union with a ballot count taking place in midDecember. The settlement was approved, and production resumed early in 2020.

Americas Silver Corporation operated the Galena mine near Osburn. The mine complex includes
the adjacent Coeur and Caladay properties plus two mills. The mine staff was using newly
developed 3-D mine models to target and drill Ag-Pb veins in the upper portions of the mine from
the 3700 to 2400 levels in 2018 as well as mining new stopes on the deep 5200 levels. However,
needed hoist repairs in the 2nd quarter of 2018 negatively impacted ore production. The company
agreed to combine with Pershing Gold, and that acquisition was completed in April 2019; the new
company was renamed Americas Gold and Silver Corporation. Conventional and mechanical
mining continued, along with 23,000 feet of drilling that resulted in two new vein discoveries on
the 4900, yet hoist problems continued to plague the mine. A milestone agreement was negotiated
when the company signed a joint venture agreement with Eric Sprott in September 2019, whereby
Sprott would earn a 40% interest in the Galena in return for financing $20 million in new
equipment and upgrades. The Recapitalization plan called for a new hoist in the Galena shaft,
multiple repairs and development work, and increased exploration drilling (Fig. 4).

--- PAGE 8 ---

Figure 3. Close-up (see dark pencil in center for scale) of vein on 6200 sublevel, 16 stope, 30 vein,
Gold Hunter system, Lucky Friday mine (2018). Left wall rock is green silty argillite, vein quartz
is white, gray material is argentiferous galena, tan is siderite, and black is sphalerite. Photo width
approximately 3 feet.

--- PAGE 9 ---

Figure 4. Galena miners driving drift with Jumbo to access new 075 vein, 4900 level (2019 photo).

North Idaho’s Murray district, a major placer gold producer, is a short distance north of the town
of Wallace in the Coeur d’Alene district. New Jersey Mining Company, an Idaho-based company,
mined lode gold from their wholly owned, Golden Chest mine just east of Murray. Production was
both from underground and an open pit with extracted ore trucked to their 360-tonne per day

--- PAGE 10 ---

flotation mill at Kellogg. Multiple orogenic-style gold-quartz veins are localized along the Idaho
fault at the mine. Ore grades were in the 3 to 5 gram/tonne range. The company purchased a new
CAT haul truck and loader. Production was approximately 4000 to 5000 ounces of gold per year.
The company hosted a Belt Association field trip in September 2018.
Near Elk City, the Finnish company Endomines acquired TVL Gold LLC and the underground
Friday mine, located along the Orogrande shear zone west of Elk City in Idaho County. The
company did development and pre-production work in 2019 along narrow gold veins localized
between the Monday and Friday faults. However, their flotation and gravity mill southeast of Elk
City proved to be a long haul from the mine, and the tailings pond suffered damage from a harsh
winter, hampering operations. Endomines also acquired the Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood deposits
nearby, as well as the Rescue mine at Warren and the Kimberly gold mine in the Marshall
Mountains.

PHOSPHATE MINING

Southeast Idaho’s Phosphate District includes three large open pit mines and three processing
plants, and all were in full operation (Fig. 5). Production was estimated at approximately 4 to 5
million tons of phosphate rock from the mines in Caribou County. The resource is part of the
Meade Peak member of the Phosphoria Formation, a black phosphatic shale deposited over parts
of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Montana in the Permian about 265 million years ago. The ore
mineral is fluorapatite and ore grades are in the 25 to 30 weight percent P2O5 range. The shales are
also enriched in trace elements such as carbon, uranium, vanadium, selenium and rare earth
elements. As recognized in the 1990s, selenium is enriched dominantly in the middle waste shales
and easily released when oxidized waters percolate through old waste dumps. The companies and
agencies have been addressing this issue by capping old dumps and new overburden piles, plus
segregating and backfilling waste rock to prevent oxidation and water contact at active mines.
Long-time phosphate miner Monsanto was acquired by international chemical and pharmaceutical
producer Bayer in 2018, and Agrium was acquired by Itafos. The third company operating in the
area is J.R. Simplot, a private, Idaho-based company. The phosphate rock was processed locally
into phosphoric acid for fertilizer (Agrium/Itafos plant at Conda and Simplot’s plant in Pocatello)
or into elemental phosphorus (Monsanto/Bayer’s plant at Soda Springs). Each of the company’s
mines and processing plant employs several hundred workers, providing a substantial economic
base for southeast Idaho.

--- PAGE 11 ---

Figure 5. Location map of Phosphate District of southeast Idaho. Active open pit mines are in red
ovals; green ovals are mines in reclamation; squares with red Xs are plants. DS is Dairy Syncline;
CC is Caldwell Canyon property.

J.R. Simplot operated the Smoky Canyon mine near the Wyoming border. The F panel, or Manning
Creek lease, was mined in both 2018 and 2019, and the G panel, or Deer Creek lease, accessed for
mining in 2019. Simplot segregated the waste rock to isolate the more Se-rich material into
infiltration-limited covered areas during concurrent reclamation (Fig. 6). The final Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for the Dairy Syncline mine plan was released on November 8, 2019. The
agency’s preferred alternative was to allow mining with modifications. The property would have
a 30-year mine-life. A smaller project, the East Smoky panel expansion, draft EIS went out for
public review in September 2018.
Bayer took over operations at the Blackfoot Bridge mine after their acquisition of Monsanto.
Mining by their subsidiary P4 continued in the North pit and then the Mid pit with backfilling of
the North pit. The mine installed geosynthetic clay/laminated layer covers on the external
overburden or waste rock piles during concurrent reclamation. In 2019, Bayer drilled 8,900 feet of
exploration drilling in 28 holes on the Trail Creek lease; roads and pads were reclaimed.  In August
2019, the agencies (Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service) issued a Record of
Decision (ROD) approving the mine plan for the Caldwell Canyon property. The Draft EIS had
been released November 30, 2018, for public review after the EIS process started in March 2017
following several years of study. The proposed Caldwell Canyon mine would have a 40-year mine
life, and initial overburden would backfill the old Dry Valley mine of FMC.
Agrium’s Conda Phosphate Operations, including the plant and active mines and leases, were sold
to Itafos in late 2017 as part of a corporate merger and acquisition deal. Nu-west, was reorganized
into a new company, Nutrien, retained ownership and responsibility to manage the reclamation of
the older mines, including the South and Central Rasmussen Ridge property. Itafos began ore
production at the Rasmussen Valley mine in early 2018 to supply feed for the Conda fertilizer

--- PAGE 12 ---

plant. In a novel collaboration, the initial overburden was sent to the nearby South Rasmussen pit
which was previously mined by Monsanto and P4. Itafos also mined a private lease at the existing
Lanes Creek mine. Itafos’ ore was sent to the fertilizer plant at Conda. Stated capacity at the plant
is 550 kt per year of MAP (monoammonium phosphate), super phosphoric acid and other products.
Itafos was also reviewing exploration and development options for the Husky 1/ North Dry Ridge
leases and the Paris Hills underground phosphate area located in Bear Lake County.

Figure 6. Smoky Canyon mine reclamation of F1 N pit in September 2018. Multi-layered caps are
constructed over reclaimed waste rock areas.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MINERALS

Idaho produces a variety of industrial minerals in addition to phosphate rock. Construction sand
and gravel was the most widely mined and distributed material but more unique commodities
mined included industrial and gem garnet, dimension stone, high-purity pumice and perlite,
zeolites, feldspar, bentonite and calcium (Fig. 7). Industrial mineral operations in 2018 and 2019
changed little from prior years as markets were fairly stable, though not stellar. Particularly in
southwest Idaho, demand was up somewhat for aggregate and construction sand and gravel. The

--- PAGE 13 ---

smaller industrial minerals plants and quarries are important segments to local economies in rural
areas.

Figure 7. Location of Idaho’s industrial mineral operations, excluding phosphate and aggregate
quarries, in 2019.

In north Idaho, Emerald Creek Garnet continued to mine alluvial almadine garnets for abrasives
and filtration uses. Opta Minerals Inc. owns Emerald Creek; the garnet operations started in the
1930s near Fernwood. Covia Corporation bought Unimin’s industrial sand operation in Gem
County in 2019. Feldspar and clean quartz were extracted from Tertiary lakeshore sediments and
washed and packaged at Covia’s plant near Emmett in southwest Idaho. The feldspathic sand is
used in glass-making and other uses. Oakley stone, a durable micaceous quartzite which splits into
thin sheets was mined by Northern Stone Supply, Sawtooth Stone, Scrivanich and smaller

--- PAGE 14 ---

operations from pits on Middle Mountain in Cassia County. The facing stone is also cut into tiles
and exported for use in high-end residential and commercial buildings. Another unique Idaho
deposit is the high-purity pumice mined at the Wrights Creek mine in Oneida County. The pumice
is processed by Hess Pumice in a plant at Malad. The company uses special screens to separate
size ranges of the pumice particles for use in lightweight aggregate and artificial stone, pozzolan,
abrasives, filtration, and other markets. Hess also mines and processes perlite and produces grout
and pozzolan. One of the only exploration projects for industrial minerals in recent years has been
i-minerals’ Bovill project in Latah County in north Idaho. The district is a historic clay producer
and much of the project area is on state mineral leases. The i-minerals project was evaluating the
potential for several commodities, including kaolin and metakaolin, halloysite, quartz and feldspar.
Work in 2018 and 2019 included processing optimization studies, engineering, and completion of
a 43-101 report by SRK in April 2019. However, the clay business is very competitive with the
southeast US being a dominant producer.

ENERGY RESOURCES

Since about 2011, the Idaho Office of Energy and Mineral Resources (OEMR) has documented
production, usage and governmental policy related to Idaho’s energy use and resources.
Hydropower dominates Idaho’s energy production and supplies approximately half of the state’s
consumption. In 2019, OEMR listed hydropower capacity in the state at 2,700 MW from over 140
existing generating plants with the largest being the Hells Canyon Complex on the Snake River
and Dworshak Dam on the Clearwater River. However, geothermal power and natural gas
production contributed to Idaho’s energy portfolio in 2018 – 2019.

OIL AND GAS
Commercial fossil fuel extraction in the western Snake River Plain of southwestern Idaho began
in 2015-2016 with oil, gas, and condensate production from Alta Mesa Holdings wells (Fig. 8A).
These wells target conventional clastic reservoirs in the Tertiary Glenns Ferry, Chalk Hills, and
Payette Formations, located at depths of approximately 1,500 to 6,500 feet. The Willow field, near
New Plymouth, consists of eight wells that collectively produced about 2.9 TCF of natural gas,
140,000 barrels of condensate, 100,000 barrels of NGLs, and 90,000 barrels of light oil during the
2018-2019 period. In early 2018, two successful exploration wells: Barlow 1-14 and Fallon 1-10,
were drilled and completed near Fruitland, encountering approximately 175 feet of net pay in highporosity and high-permeability sands (Fig. 8B). Additionally, in the fall of 2018, CPC Mineral
drilled the Bell 17-2 exploration well in Bonneville County, southeast Idaho. Although natural gas
shows were recorded in the Jurassic Twin Creek Limestone target zone, the well was deemed
uneconomical and was subsequently plugged and abandoned. Ongoing petroleum system research

--- PAGE 15 ---

by the IGS in the Western Snake River Plain aims to identify potential source rocks and assess
their hydrocarbon-generating potential.

Figure 8. A) Simplified geology and location map of Idaho’s hydrocarbon fields in 2018. B)
Wireline logs illustrating the hydrocarbon zone encountered in the Barlow 1-14 well. GR is gamma
ray log; DEN is density log; RES is resistivity log; CNL is compensated neutron log. Figure
prepared by Mark Barton of the Idaho Geological Survey.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Ormat operated the only commercial geothermal power plant in Idaho (Fig. 2). It is located at Raft
River in southern Cassia County and provided about 11 MW of net capacity from a binary, watercooled system. The state also has lower temperature resources which are used locally for heating
in both urban and rural systems. In 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy was looking at research
into Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) which require reservoir stimulation.

--- PAGE 16 ---

MINERAL EXPLORATION

2018 saw an increase in major drilling programs for hard rock mineral commodities, particularly
gold and cobalt (Fig. 9). Numerous drill rigs were kept active in 2018 and 2019 on advanced
projects in Idaho. Some of the increased interest was a result of new, more mining-friendly federal
government attitudes and policies including the late 2017 cancellation of the proposed sagebrush
focal area withdrawals. Relatively stable and robust precious metal prices and a spike in the price
of cobalt in 2017-2018 also helped enhance exploration interest. The Bureau of Land Management
reported over 6,000 new mining claims filed in Idaho in 2018 and about 5,000 of those were in the
Idaho Cobalt belt. Unfortunately, the cobalt price dropped significantly by the end of 2109 down
to the $15 per pound range, versus its high of over $40 per pound spot price in early 2018.

NORTH IDAHO
Bunker Hill Mining Corporation, formerly Liberty Silver, was founded in 2017, to explore the
historic Bunker Hill lead-zinc mine on the west end of the Coeur d’Alene district. The Bunker
produced about 38 million tons of ore between 1885 and 1981 when the mine and smelter closed
as the former owner, Gulf Resources, went bankrupt, laying off 2200 workers and opening the site
to a now-completed CERCLA cleanup. The new company had financing problems and defaulted
on their lease-purchase agreement with owner (Placer Mining Corp.), but in November 2018, the
company renegotiated to reduce the payment for a year. It was also in discussions with the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about assuming costs of the water treatment plant in
return for needed permits. The lease-option agreement was amended again in October 2019 for
nine months and more favorable terms. A large zinc resource in the Quill zone and other areas was
identified prior to the mine closure.

--- PAGE 17 ---

Figure 9. Location of major mineral exploration projects in 2019. Green rectangles are for
industrial minerals; blue triangles are geothermal plants and projects; black crosshair is petroleum;
all red dots and polygons are for metal exploration projects.

--- PAGE 18 ---

At Murray, Hecla did surface work and drilled 11 core holes on their Little Baldy project along
the East Fork of Eagle Creek. They purchased the Tobbogan claims from New Jersey Mining and
staked additional land. Mineralization is present as orogenic-style gold-quartz veins hosted in Belt
metasedimentary rocks. The veins were likely contributors to the Murray gold placers.
New Vulcan Hill (NVH), a private company, did minor work on their polymetallic mining claims
in the Lakeview district just south of Lake Pend Oreille.
West of the town of Elk City, Idaho Champion drilled at the Baner gold mine. They had good
results along 500 meters of strike of the deeply oxidized zone which splays off the main Orogrande
shear (Fig.10). Champion drilled 5,200m in 19 core holes in 2018 with intercepts including
ICG2018-13 with 5.76 g/t Au over 12.65m at a shallow depth. Alteration around the shear zone is
dominantly quartz-sericite-pyrite. Lack of funding prevented work the following year despite the
favorable results.

Figure 10. Drilling at the Baner mine project of Idaho Champion, near Elk City, 2018.

STIBNITE-YELLOW PINE, VALLEY COUNTY
Evaluation by the U.S. Forest Service and other regulators of the 2016 NEPA Plan of Restoration
and Operations (PRO) for the proposed Stibnite gold-antimony mine in Valley County was
ongoing. The project developed by Midas Gold contained over 5 million troy ounces of gold and
a significant antimony resource. Research by the Idaho Geological Survey and others has described

--- PAGE 19 ---

a complex history of overprinted mineralization with gold ores developed in an orogenic-style
shear setting at approximately 62 Ma, while the antimony precipitated as the mineral stibnite 16
million years later. Due to historical impacts, including mining of strategic antimony and tungsten
during wartime, multiple legacy environmental issues make the minesite and PRO plan complex
and controversial. Midas proposed mining the gold to help pay for restoration of the site and reestablishment of fish passage up the East Fork of the Salmon River. The company continued
metallurgy, geotechnical work, and geologic modelling in 2018, and they drilled several large
volume water wells for pump tests in 2019. A draft EIS was anticipated at the end of 2019.
However, in August 2019, the Nez Perce Tribe sued Midas over water quality issues and cited
them as responsible for prior environmental damage from 100 years of mining. The designated
Nez Perce tribal reservation is over 100 km north of Stibnite, but the tribe maintains a claim to
fishing rights in the Salmon River watershed. Litigation and legal issues were still active at the end
of 2019.

SALMON AREA, LEMHI COUNTY
Revival Gold continued an aggressive program at their Beartrack and Arnett Creek gold projects
in Lemhi County near the historic placer workings at Leesburg. The Beartrack mine produced
about 600,000 troy ounces of gold from Meridian Gold’s open pit, heap leach mine from 1994 –
2000 prior to being reclaimed. Revival conducted 6,500 meters of diamond drilling in 13 holes in
2018. In 2019, the company added 3 core holes totaling 1,230m in the Joss target at Beartrack and
22 core holes totaling 3,830m at Arnett Creek. An NI 43-101 report released in July 2018
calculated a 33 million tonne indicated resource at over 1 g/t Au with mineralization open in
several directions. The company conducted additional soil sampling and mapping at Arnett Creek
and a 400-line-kilometer airborne magnetic survey along with expanding their land position and
doing metallurgical tests. The two deposits at the “BTAC” project are two distinctly different goldbearing systems that happen to be located within a few miles of each other and close to facilities
remaining from Meridian’s operation. The Beartrack mine exploited an orogenic-style goldarsenopyrite vein along the Panther Creek and Coiner fault systems. The enigmatic mineralization
at Arnett Creek is highly oxidized and hosted in a series of Paleozoic-age intrusions.
The Idaho Cobalt belt is a well-defined, northwest-trending belt of cobalt occurrences in Lemhi
County west of the town of Salmon. Though all the occurrences in the approximately 30-mile by
5-mile belt are hosted in Mesoproterozoic rocks of the Apple Creek formation, the zone trends
across geologic contacts and structures. The Apple Creek lithologies are principally siltites and
argillites with some coarser sand units. Biotitite, a poorly understood, biotite-rich rock, is
associated with some of the mineralized areas in the northern part of the belt. The cobalt mineral
is largely cobaltite in the north with cobaltiferous pyrite dominant on the southeast; chalcopyrite
is the copper-bearing mineral. Due to cobalt’s use in rechargeable batteries and the price increase,
several new companies initiated a staking war in the Cobalt belt. The 2018 list of companies
included: New World Cobalt, eCobalt, International Cobalt, ePower Metals, Century Cobalt,
Hybrid Minerals, Borah Resources, and First Cobalt. The two major companies active in 2019
included First Cobalt at the Iron Creek property and Jervois Mining, an Australian company, at
the Idaho Cobalt Project (ICP). Jervois which purchased eCobalt in July 2019 to obtain the ICP
and its RAM ore deposit, a 1997 discovery of Formation Capital Corp. (renamed eCobalt), which

--- PAGE 20 ---

is located adjacent to the historic Blackbird mine. By the end of 2019, most claims remained on
many of the other land holdings although fewer companies were actively engaged in exploration.
The major cobalt producer was the now-closed Blackbird mine near the townsite of Cobalt in
Lemhi County. Geologically, the tightly folded Belt-age metasedimentary rocks, were assigned to
the Yellowjacket, and later the Apple Creek or other formations. The depositional age of the rocks
is approximately 1.4 Ga. The Blackbird district has been split apparently along several thrust
plates, presumed to be from Cretaceous convergence, and varying metamorphic intensity is
displayed. The maximum metamorphic grade is garnet facies or higher to the northwest but only
chlorite to biotite grade further south. The origin of the ores is debated, though Blackbird
mineralization is partly stratabound in a banded siltite unit with multiple ore horizons. Some ore
is locally remobilized along fold hinges. Cobaltite (CoAsS2) with pyrite and chalcopyrite is
dominant at Blackbird and the RAM, and there is a significant gold credit and locally anomalous
rare earths. The best geochronology from recent USGS work suggests that cobalt was introduced
early in the system, possibly during or shortly after sedimentation or associated with a 1370 Ma
intrusive event, however, the details remain unclear.
In 2018-2019, the Idaho Cobalt Project of eCobalt/Jervois was the most advanced project in the
Idaho Cobalt belt. The mine was permitted after discovery of the RAM deposit in 1997 but not
developed until recently due to financing problems. Work in 2018 included construction and dirt
work for the underground mine portal bench, mill facilities, tailings impoundment and water
storage ponds (Fig. 11). In July 2019, Jervois Mining, an Australian firm, purchased eCobalt and
the project in a deal valued at $44 million. The permitted NI 43-101 compliant measured and
indicated (M and I) resource was listed at 3.87 Mt of 0.59% Co and 0.85% Cu plus 1.82 Mt inferred
resource at 0.46% Co and 0.81% Cu, and a gold credit. The project was renamed the Idaho Cobalt
Operation, or ICO. Jervois initiated a bankable feasibility study, metallurgy, and a footwall drilling
program which intersected two new mineralized horizons. Jervois also initiated a scoping study
for a processing facility.

--- PAGE 21 ---

Figure 11. Site overview in October 2018 of the Idaho Cobalt Project.
On the southeast end of the belt, First Cobalt, acquired US Cobalt and the Iron Creek project in
June 2018. They conducted 18,000 meters of surface and underground core drilling along the No
Name and Waite zones. They completed a Phase 2 drill program in early 2019 for a total of 43
diamond drill holes, along with geologic mapping and interpretation. The No Name deposit is
accessed by historic adits on either side of Iron Creek. An additional zone or continuation is
exposed in roadcuts above Jackass Creek further east. Mineralization at Iron Creek consists of
cobaltiferous pyrite, often with magnetite and some chalcopyrite. In most areas, the copper zone
is partly separate from the cobalt zone. Drilling expanded the strike and dip dimensions of the
deposit, and the company was updating the resource calculation at the end of 2019. First Cobalt
owns a refinery at Cobalt, Ontario.
International Cobalt Corporation, a Vancouver-based junior, reported a “grass roots” discovery in
2018 from surface rock-chip and soil samples south of the Blackbird mine patented claims and
mill area in what they called the Raven and Ludwig zones. They also reported enriched rare earth
and gold values in soils. Century Cobalt Corporation staked a large land package (the Emperium
Cobalt Project) and conducted limited surface work.
An Australian company, New World Cobalt or New World Resources, also known as Codaho,
drilled the Salmon Canyon Copper mine property in 2018. The project was referred to as the
Colson Cobalt-Copper project; it is located on the far northwest end of the belt and is in schists
and gneisses. The mine sits along the north bank of the Salmon River, a sensitive environmental
site and a busy recreation corridor, though the property continues to the north out of sight of the
river in the Long Tom area. New World conducted an extensive soil geochemical survey, IP survey
and drilled 12 holes, totaling almost 5,000 meters (Fig. 12). One intercept on the Salmon Canyon
target was 1.1 meters assaying 0.18% Co,1.43% Cu, and 0.74 g/t Au. The Australian company was
permitted for additional drilling in the future.

--- PAGE 22 ---

Figure 12. Cobalt in soils and IP targets at the Colson project of New World Cobalt, from
company press release June 2019.

EASTERN AND SOUTHERN IDAHO
Otis Gold continued work on their Kilgore project in Clark County during both years. Kilgore is a
low-sulfidation, epithermal gold-silver system which is hosted primarily in Tertiary volcanic
rocks. In 2017, the company drilled mineralization in a sedimentary unit, the Aspen Formation,
which is below the volcanics. Otis filed a new NI 43-101 resource in 2018 with an indicated
resource of 825,000 ounces of gold in 44.6 million metric tons at a grade of 0.58 g/t Au. The
company did additional soil surveys and flew Lidar. In 2019, Otis was drilling on a 12-hole RC
program and completed a preliminary economic analysis for a 5-year mine life operation.
Exploration was stymied when the Idaho Conservation League (ICL) sued the U.S. Forest Service
over the new drill permit. A ruling was expected near the end of 2019. Kilgore is an
environmentally sensitive project due to its location within the Greater Yellowstone region.
Phoenix Copper Ltd., alias PG Mining or affiliate Konnex, continued work on their Empire mine
project at Mackay in Custer County. The deposit is a copper-zinc skarn which Phoenix drilled in
2018 (Fig. 13). In May 2019, they released a new NI 43-101 resource for an open-pit, SX-EW
(solvent extraction/electrowinning) operation resource containing 73,872 tonnes copper, 29,813
tonnes zinc, 139,000 ounces gold and 6 million ounces silver. Phoenix was working on a bankable
feasibility study and environmental baseline work with a drill program planned for 2020. They
also staked the nearby Navarre Creek gold and Red Star polymetallic targets.

--- PAGE 23 ---

Figure 13. Blue chrysocolla and other secondary copper minerals along fractures in core from the
Empire mine drilling in 2018.

In mid-2018 Liberty Gold, then Pilot Gold, acquired 100% of the Black Pine Project from Western
Pacific Resources Corporation for $ 800,000 cash, stock shares and a small NSR payment. Black
Pine in Cassia County near the Utah border is a large Carlin-type sediment-hosted gold district.
Historically a mercury producer, the district was rediscovered by Noranda in the late 1980s and
eventually mined by Pegasus from 1992-1997 with production cited as 435,000 ounces gold at a
historic grade of 0.63 g/t Au from shallow pits. The mine closed at a time of low gold prices, but
the data and property package was quite large. In 2017, Liberty reviewed the old data, had a small
RC drilling program and applied to the Forest Service for a much larger drilling program. Liberty’s
geologists compiled the extensive data package and developed a 3D geologic and mineralization
model. At Black Pine the geology consists of several plates of carbonate rocks displaced along
low-angle detachment faults. In February 2019, Liberty received a new expanded plan of
operations for up to 370 drillholes. They negotiated access rights with the BLM and commenced
drilling in April with a total of 65,000 feet of reverse circulation (RC) drilling in about 90 holes
completed in 2019. Six core holes and five large-diameter holes for bulk sampling were also
drilled. Liberty reported two new mineralized zones from the drilling.
Integra Resources drilled another large precious metal project at the DeLamar mine in Owyhee
County of southwestern Idaho. The DeLamar district includes three mineralized centers of
Miocene-age, low-sulfidation epithermal mineralization, with the historic DeLamar mine operated
as an open pit mine by Kinross until it closed in 1998. Production from the old high-grade veins

--- PAGE 24 ---

and the newer open-pit is estimated at about 1.6 million ounces of gold and 100 million ounces of
silver. Integra acquired the reclaimed DeLamar mine in October 2017 and the adjoining Florida
Mountain project in January 2018. Florida Mountain had been permitted as an open pit mine by
Kinross, but there was only minor production before the project shut down due to the low metal
prices. Integra quickly drilled over 20,000 meters in 2018, including some deep intercepts of good
grades (over 5 g/t Au Eq) in the classic Trade Dollar vein system of Florida Mountain (Fig. 14).
They also conducted metallurgy work, did airborne geophysics and surface soil sampling. The NI
43-101 compliant resource released in October 2019 listed an M & I resource of 3.9 Moz AuEq
plus another 500K oz AuEq inferred.

Fig. 14. Core drilling in the Florida Mountain pit, of the Stone Cabin mine at Integra’s DeLamar
project in July 2019.

Also in Owyhee County, BeMetals explored the zinc skarn and high-grade polymetallic
replacements at South Mountain, a private land package leased from Thunder Mountain Gold, a
Boise-based company. BeMetals drilled 20 holes from underground at South Mountain (Fig. 15).
Results included a 12-meter intercept of 18% zinc and 1.5% lead with 122 g/t Ag and 4 g/t Au.

--- PAGE 25 ---

Figure. 15. Dark sphalerite and pyrite in core from South Mountain, Idaho, 2019.

STATE ACTIVITIES 2018-2019
The Idaho Geological Survey had a very active geologic mapping program. From 1993 to 2018,
the IGS received $ 4.3 million for geologic mapping through the Statemap program of the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) and published 208 maps. Geologic maps and other publications are
posted on the IGS website (www.idahogeology.org) and available for free downloads as pdf
documents. In many cases GIS data is also available. In 2019, mapping was focused on the Salmon,
Weiser, Preston, and Elk City areas, while new quadrangles in the Idaho Cobalt belt were funded
by the USGS’s Earth MRI program since cobalt was a critical mineral. Another new mapping
project was an industry-funded, 1:24,000 scale map of two quadrangles centered around the Integra
DeLamar mine project in Owyhee County.
The Survey debuted a new mines web application on a redesigned IGS web site. The map-based
application makes it easier to search for information on the over 8,800 mineral properties in the
database. Searches can be done by name, commodity, location, surface land management and

--- PAGE 26 ---

PLSS. A revised version of the mines database (DD-1) with additional references was released in
2019.
A major project has been a basin analysis and reservoir characterization to better understand the
southwestern Idaho hydrocarbon fields of the western Snake River Plain. Industry collaboration,
and particularly review of the seismic lines, has been a major part of the project. Drone-captured
imagery of the field outcrop exposures was combined with the 2D seismic lines to document the
facies architecture and assist with subsurface interpretations. The project is ongoing.
Hydrogeologic characterizations and groundwater modeling of the Big Lost River Basin and the
Raft River Basin were also underway with funding from the Idaho Department of Water Resources
and collaboration of the USGS.  Geologic hazard studies included mapping of the Bear Lake fault
and a paleoseismic investigation and a new effort to develop a state landslide database.
In minerals, the Idaho Department of Lands and the Idaho Mining Association passed legislation
in 2019 to revise the state’s regulatory oversight to include the surface impacts of underground
mines and update various financial costs. The IGS commented to the state’s Office of Energy and
Mineral Resources on several wilderness and federal Forest Plan proposals. A new IGS Bulletin
31 was published in early 2019 with results of a multi-year, multi-collaborator investigation into
the geology, hydrothermal alteration, and timing of gold-antimony-tungsten mineralization of the
Stibnite Mining District. Also in 2019, as noted, the Survey celebrated its 100th Anniversary and
inducted a new State Geologist.


=== PAPER B — Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021 ===
Source: https://idahogeology.org/pub/Staff_Reports/S-23-02.pdf
Words: 8,130 | Pages: 26 | Method: pdfplumber+pymupdf
================================================================================

--- PAGE 1 ---
Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Mark Barton

Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-02

        Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

     University of Idaho
Updated April 2025

   Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

--- PAGE 2 ---

Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021

Virginia S. Gillerman
Earl H. Bennett
Mark Barton

Staff Reports present timely information for
public distribution. This publication may not
conform to the agency’s standards.

Idaho Geological Survey
Staff Report 23-02

        Morrill Hall, Third Floor
September 2023

     University of Idaho
Updated April 2025

   Moscow, Idaho 83844-3014

--- PAGE 3 ---

Contents
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….… 4
Metal Mining ………………………………………………………………………… 7

Coeur d’Alene and Murray Districts ……………………………………………..7

Other Metal Mining ………………………………………………………….….10
Phosphate Mining …………………………………………………………………..…...11
Other Industrial Minerals …………………………………………………………….…13
Energy Resources………………………………………………………………………..13
Mineral Exploration ……………………………..……………………………………...16

North Idaho and Western Idaho ………………………………………………...17

Yellow Pine Area, Valley County …………………………………………… 18

Salmon Area, Lemhi County ………………………………………………… 19

Eastern Idaho …………………………………………….…………………..….23

Southwest Idaho .…………………………………………………………….….25

Illustrations
Figure 1. Total value of Idaho’s non-fuel mineral production, 2009 - 2021.…… 5
Figure 2. Idaho silver production, 1978 – 2020..… 6
Figure 3. Location of active mines and plants, 2021 7
Figure 4. Underground drilling at the Galena mine in 2000 …………...……….,,,.… 8
Figure 5. Exploration targets at the Galena mine, 2021 …… ….…………...……….…9
Figure 6. Gold-quartz vein underground, Golden Chest mine, 2020……….. ………….10
Figure 7. Location map of Idaho phosphate mines and plants..…….……………..… 11
Figure 8. Rasmussen Valley phosphate mine, 2021……………………………….… 12
Figure 9. Location map of industrial mineral operations, 2021..………….……..….…..14
Figure 10. Cope sand and gravel pit, 2020 ……………………………………… 15
Figure 11. Location map of mineral exploration projects, 2021…… …..………… 16
Figure 12. Underground drilling and core, Bunker Hill mine, 2020.……………………17
Figure 13. Simplified geologic map of Salmon area with mapping projects
                  and cobalt and REE occurrences, 2020.………………………………….….20
Figure 14. Core drilling at Revival’s Beartrack gold mine project, 2020……….….…...21
Figure 15. New East and West portals at ICO, December 2021.………… ……… 22
Figure 16. Map of chargeability results from survey at Iron Creek, 2020 ……………...23
Figure 17. Alteration at reclaimed Champagne mine, Lava Creek district, 2021 ………24
Figure 18. New Rangefront discovery at Black Pine gold project, 2021 ……………….25
Figure 19. Drill core with bonanza-grade silver from Florida Mountain, 2021 ………...26

--- PAGE 4 ---

Idaho Mining and Exploration, 2020-2021

Virginia S. Gillerman, Idaho Geological Survey
Earl H. Bennett, retired, Idaho Geological Survey
Mark Barton, Idaho Geological Survey

INTRODUCTION

The year 2020 will be known as the “Covid year” due to the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic to
the world and Idaho in early 2020. The Idaho mineral industry, like everyone, scrambled to find
ways to cope with effects of the global pandemic. Mining was classified as a “critical industry,”
but it still needed to keep workers safe and productive at underground mines, open-pits and
quarries and plants. By the second half of 2020, operations had implemented innovative ways to
keep operating under Covid protocols, and by the end of 2020 and into 2021, Idaho mining was
at essentially full production and mineral exploration companies were very busy with a return to
grass roots exploration as well as drilling several advanced projects.

An added but positive incentive was Idaho’s 8th place survey ranking in the investment
attractiveness category of the Fraser Institute in 2019. This category is a combination of mineral
potential and public perception, and the high ranking relative to dozens of country and state
jurisdictions brought renewed attention to Idaho and its mineral industry. This staff report
summarizes developments in the minerals and energy sectors for the calendar years of 2020 and
2021. Additional details and photographs are in the supplemental material for this report which is
available on the Mines and Minerals page of the Idaho Geological Survey (IGS) website:
www.idahogeology.org.

The actual value of Idaho’s mineral production during this period varied due to pandemic effects
and the strike at the Lucky Friday mine which ended in January 2020. The Lucky Friday mine
ramped up to full production by the end of 2020. For Idaho, the U.S. Geological Survey reported
a value of non-fuel mineral production in 2020 of $553 million. In 2021, the value for Idaho was
listed at $655 million. These updated “final” values differ significantly from the preliminary
numbers available in the annual Mineral Commodity Summary (MCS) publications. Because of
legal concerns over proprietary information, the individual commodity production values are no

--- PAGE 5 ---
longer available to state surveys or the general pu
production value is shown in Figure 1. Ten comm
2021 for Idaho. They were: feldspar, garnet (ind
pumice, sand and gravel (industrial), silver, and z
silver, are Idaho’s most important and well-know
states, Idaho’s mineral production value ranked 3
USGS tabulation. Value added by in-state proces
USGS values.
IDAHO NON-FUEL MI
1,400,000
1,200,000
1,000,000
800,000

600,000
400,000
200,000

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20
Figure 1. Total value of non-fuel mineral product
on data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Metal and commodity prices dictate production ta
of exploration activity. In 2020, precious metal p
for gold and $24 per ounce for silver. The silver m
with futures prices just over $30 per ounce for a s
ounce range for the first half of 2021 before trend
Gold was less volatile, staying close to $1,900 an
two precious metals were high and stable relative
Cu) prices reached a low in early 2020 but rose s
over $4 per pound. On the other hand, molybdenu
the period but jumped to near $20 per pound in th
pattern; its price skyrocketed in 2021 to $20 per p

ublic. A timeline of the total non-fuel mineral
modities were only reported as “concealed” in
dustrial), lead, lime, perlite, phosphate rock,
zeolites. Two of those, phosphate rock and
wn mineral commodities. Relative to the other
36th in 2020 and 35th in 2021, based on the
ssing of phosphate rock is not included in the
NERAL PRODUCTION
14 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
YEAR
tion in Idaho for the period 2009 to 2021, based
argets at operating mines and influence the level
prices were in the $1,900 per troy ounce range
market reached an 8-year high in March 2021
short time. Silver traded in the $25 per troy
ding lower to about $22 per ounce by year’s end.
n ounce for most of 2021. Prices levels of the
e to historical trends. Base metal (Pb, Zn, and
steadily throughout 2021 with copper reaching
um stayed low (circa $10 per pound) for most of
he second half of 2021. Cobalt showed a similar
pound by July and closed the year over $30 per

--- PAGE 6 ---
pound. The result in Idaho was a staking rush in the Idaho Cobalt belt in 2021-2022. Neodymium
prices showed a similar pattern. The commodity price increases in 2021 were in part a
consequence of increased global economic activity following the pandemic-related slump in
2020.
Idaho is historically one of the nation’s top silver producers. In 2021, the IGS collaborated with
mines in the Coeur d’Alene district to tabulate silver production for the past 20 years and prior.
GeoNote 47 was published by IGS in 2022 and records mine production in the Coeur d’Alene
District, 2000 – 2020. It is available for download at https://www.idahogeology.org/product/G47 . Figure 2 shows Idaho silver production and silver prices for the period 1978 – 2000. It
demonstrates the variable production and the common lag time or mismatch when higher
production coincides with lower metal prices. This cyclic industry pattern can inhibit a
company’s ability to reinvest profits back into a mine in the form of exploration drilling or
infrastructure improvements.
Another highlight of 2021 was the increased awareness both globally and at the federal
government of the importance of critical minerals to the forthcoming “green economy” and their
use in many renewable power sources, electrification, consumer electronics, and high-tech
defense applications. Rare earths, cobalt, antimony, copper and even zinc, are all commodities
which have been produced in Idaho historically and were of great interest to government and
exploration companies.
Figure 3 shows the location of active mines and plants in 2021. The Coeur d’Alene district in
Shoshone County in north Idaho and the Phosphate district of southeastern Idaho are Idaho’s two
world-class districts. Both have operated for over 100 years.
Idaho Silver Production (1978 - 2020)
20,000,000 40
18,000,000

)E
16,000,000 G
30 A R
)S 14,000,000 E V
A
E C N 12,000,000 25 L A
U U
O N
Y
10,000,000 20 N
A
O
R ,D
T (
G
A 6

0 15 S U

E
C
10 IR
4,000,000 P
G
A

2,000,000
0 0
8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 0
7 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2
9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Figure 2. Idaho silver production and commodity price, 1978 – 2020. Compiled by IGS from
USBM and company data. Price is yearly average from kitco.com.

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[/TABLE]

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METAL MINING

COEUR D’ALENE AND MURRAY DISTRICTS

Figure 3. Location of active mines and plants in 2021. Yellow dots are small gold mines; the
dark purple square is the inactive Thompson Creek mine; the black cross hair is for oil and gas
production, and the blue triangle indicates a geothermal power plant.

The big news in the Coeur d’Alene district, also known as the Silver Valley, was the end in
January 2020 of the 2½ year-long strike at Hecla’s Lucky Friday mine in Mullan. The strike had
commenced on March 14, 2017. By a narrow vote of United Steelworkers Local 5114, the
mineworkers approved a settlement between Hecla and the union which allowed 164 miners to
return to work. Hecla ramped up operations quickly with a goal of full production by the end of
2020. Hecla had been working with a Swedish company, Epiroc, to test a remote vein miner, but

--- PAGE 8 ---

Covid delayed bringing it to the US, and a test was conducted in a Swedish limestone mine. The
machine is essentially a longwall miner turned vertical. Hecla’s geologists also updated their 3-D
geologic and structural models by digitizing older hand-drawn geologic maps and drilling closely
spaced exploration core holes to examine the stratigraphy in more detail. The mine produced
2,031,874 troy ounces of silver in 2020 and 3,564,128 troy ounces in 2021 according to Hecla’s
annual report. The mine staff was also testing a new long hole blasting method which they called
underhand closed bench (UCB) mining. Production at the Lucky Friday was from the steeply
dipping Gold Hunter quartz-siderite-sulfide vein system.
Americas Gold and Silver Corporation operated the Galena mine and mill but production was
greatly reduced because of the new joint venture. With the influx of capital from the 2019 joint
venture with Eric Sprott, the mine focused on rehabilitation efforts on the 4300 and 5500 levels
and an extensive exploration program. The company purchased a new Hagby 1000 drill to use
for the exploration work (Fig. 4). The Galena’s geologists and drill crews completed over 48,000
feet of diamond drilling in 2020 and 120,000 feet in 2021on Phase 1 and the start of Phase 2.
Over 7,500 feet of drift was rehabilitated, and work commenced to replace the hoist and
purchase new equipment.

Figure 4. Underground drilling at the Galena mine, 2000, with their new Hagby drill.

--- PAGE 9 ---

Actual production at the mine was down due to the combined effects of Covid and the needed
rehabilitation work and exploration emphasis. Silver production at the Galena was probably less
than 1 million ounces per year in both 2020 and 2021. The exploration effort was very
successful; it increased the proven and probable reserve by 38%, and the measured and indicated
resource by 72% as of mid-2021 with work on multiple vein targets from several levels during
Phase 1 (Fig. 5). A new discovery on the Silver vein included a 2.8-foot intercept of 22 oz./ton
Ag and 0.7% Cu in hole 55-144.

Figure 5. Targets of the Galena mine exploration in 2021. The mine has both silver-copper
(tetrahedrite-rich) veins and lead-silver veins with silver-bearing galena. The new discovery is
labelled Ag. HW vein in the deeper levels of the mine.

Rich gold placer and lode deposits at Murray in north Idaho were discovered in 1883, bringing
prospectors who soon traveled south a few miles to discover the silver-lead lodes of the Coeur
d’Alene district proper along the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River. Since 2016, an Idahobased company, Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc., formerly named New Jersey Mining Company,
has mined gold from their Golden Chest mine at Murray. The Golden Chest open pit and
underground mine worked a series of gold-quartz veins adjacent to the Idaho fault (Fig. 6). The
veins are interpreted as either an orogenic system or possibly related to igneous activity. The
Idaho Pit ceased operations in 2020 after producing 121,300 metric tons of ore at an average
gold grade of 3.12 g/t gold and an additional 101,700 tonnes of lower grade stockpile. The
company was transitioning to a new area and raised $2.7 million in 2020 to drill down dip on the
Idaho vein. They also solidified their land position in the Murray district. In 2021, they increased
tonnage mined and discovered new high-grade shoots on the Klondike and other veins by
completing 25 core holes for 6,507 meters of drilling. The Golden Chest ore is sent to their New
Jersey mill at Kellogg.

--- PAGE 10 ---

Figure 6. Gold-quartz vein underground at the Golden Chest mine, 2020.

OTHER METAL MINING

A Finnish company, Endomines, had reopened the small Friday mine along the Orogrande shear
zone near Elk City in Idaho County. They did ship out gold concentrate in early 2020 but
continued to have start up issues at the mill and closed down. They reopened again in 2021. Gold
mineralization is associated with zones of intense shearing and sericitization between or near the
Friday fault and another structure, the Monday fault. The company had also acquired other pastproducing small precious metal mines in the state, including the Kimberly mine near Riggins, the
Rescue mine at Warren, and the Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood properties near Elk City.
The large Thompson Creek molybdenum mine in Custer County remained on extended care and
maintenance following its closure in December 2014. The previously permitted Phase 8 resource
remained in situ. The large concentrator was being used for limited beneficiation of concentrates
from 3rd parties in 2020.

--- PAGE 11 ---

PHOSPHATE MINING

The southeast Idaho phosphate district is regarded as the state’s second “world-class” mining
district (Fig. 7). Three large open pit mines and plants extract and process phosphate rock of the
Meade Peak member of the Permian Phosphoria Formation. Phosphorus is a component of the
mineral apatite, and the strata are also enriched in C, V, U, Mo, Se, and rare earth elements
(REEs). Phosphorites are associated with phosphatic black shales. According to the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management (BLM), the primary regulatory authority for the mines, southeast Idaho
supplied 22% of the nation’s phosphate and 4% of global demand in 2020, and the mining
industry there supported 4,500 jobs. An estimated 4-5 million short tons per year are mined.

Figure 7. Location map of Idaho phosphate mines (ovals) and plants (squares). Mines are colored
red if active or in permitting; green ovals if reclaimed.

J.R. Simplot Co. mined in the F and G panels at its Smoky Canyon mine near the Idaho –
Wyoming border. Reclamation in the F1North pit was ongoing to segregate leachable Se from
benign waste rock. The seleniferous material is covered to limit infiltration of oxidized water and
reduce environmental impacts. A Record of Decision was released in July 2020 for a new mine
panel at the East Smoky site; that will extend the mine life. Development work for mining East
Smoky was active in 2021. On April 7, 2020, a Record of Decision to allow mining at the Dairy
Syncline property was released by the BLM. The Dairy Syncline project covers 2,767 acres and
would have a 30-year mine-life; it will require moving the mine facilities when the Smoky
Canyon mine nears the end of its mine life. Ore from Smoky goes by slurry line to Simplot’s
Don Plant in Pocatello where it is transformed into a variety of phosphoric acid fertilizers.
Bayer and its mining partner, P4, operated the Blackfoot Bridge mine. Bayer had purchased
Monsanto and its phosphate operations in 2018. They were mining in the Mid-pit and backfilling

--- PAGE 12 ---

and reclaiming the North-pit. In 2020, Bayer drilled 54 holes for over 10,000 feet at its newly
permitted (August 2019) Caldwell Canyon property. The company also started construction on a
haul road connecting Caldwell to the closed Dry Vally mine, and they were building HDPE-lined
stockpile areas and water management facilities. Caldwell Canyon is a large site with an
expected 40-year mine-life. Most of the land is private and owned by P4, but there are 160 acres
of federal land. However, on April 27, 2021, a lawsuit was filed against the BLM by three
environmental NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who claimed the EIS analysis of sage
grouse and potential selenium contamination was flawed. No stay was issued, and construction
work continued while the litigation progressed in court. One complaint was that proposed mine
is part of the “greater Yellowstone area” and ecosystem, though Yellowstone Park is
approximately 110 air-miles and several mountain ranges away from the proposed mine. Bayer’s
ore feeds their elemental phosphorus plant in Soda Springs, which is the only such facility in
North America. The elemental product goes into its trade-marked Roundup herbicide and a
variety of food and chemical products.
Itafos, who purchased Agrium’s phosphate leases in 2018, is the third major company in the
district. They had a challenging 2020 as they started mining the Rasmussen Valley mine in
addition to completing mining of the private Lanes Creek lease. By 2021, mining operations at
Rasmussen Valley were well underway (Fig. 8) and the company welcomed a tour by IGS
geologists to review the exposed geology and stratigraphy. Mined areas are concurrently
backfilled.

Figure 8. Rasmussen Valley mine in August 2021 with blasthole rig on left and shovel and truck
at lower right. White spots are sample bags to analyze ore bed values.

--- PAGE 13 ---

Itafos also completed reclamation work in 2021 at both Lanes Creek and the South Rasmussen
Ridge mine, which it inherited from Agrium. The company was also permitting the Husky
1/North Dry Ridge project, a proposed new, 14-year mine on 1,145 acres. A Draft EIS was
released on October 22, 2021, by the BLM/USFS.

OTHER INDUSTRIAL MINERALS

Numerous Idaho quarries and pits extract other industrial minerals, including pumice, industrial
garnet, lime, dimension stone, feldspar, gemstones, zeolites, and most importantly aggregate
(Fig. 9). Business was a bit slower but still strong through the pandemic of 2020 to 2021.
Treasure Canyon Calcium submitted a plan to expand their limestone quarry in Franklin County
to public land in mid-2020. Steelhead, a producer of zeolites along the Oregon-Idaho border, was
sold to PDZ. Emerald Creek Garnet, now owned by Opta Minerals Inc., continued to mine
alluvial garnets, though the US Forest Service tourist garnet dig was closed due to Covid. Also in
north Idaho, i-Minerals submitted an amended plan of operations and reclamation to the Idaho
Department of Lands in September 2020. The company released a pre-feasibility study for a
smaller clay-only operation at the Bovill project in Latah County in March 2020. Hess Pumice
reported a good year for their pumice and perlite business in 2021. Oakley stone producers in
Cassia County were hit hard in 2020 by the Covid pandemic and federal visa restrictions which
prohibited workers from starting until the seasonal quarry work was almost over.
Aggregate, principally sand and gravel, along with some crushed stone, was one of Idaho’s top
five commodities by value. In southwestern Idaho, three new pits were approved, with additional
leases requested. The value of construction sand and gravel extracted in Idaho jumped from $118
million in 2018 to $158 million in 2019 and rose to $169 million in 2020 and $179 million in
2021, according to data from the USGS. Values of crushed stone also rose 24% from 2019 to
2021. Increased housing construction and roadwork, particularly in the Treasure Valley of
southwestern Idaho, drove the demand for new aggregate sources (Fig. 10). The Idaho
Department of Lands maintained over 100 reclamation plans for gravel pits and quarries across
the state, and it received $1.1 million in royalties from operations on state lands in fiscal year
2019.

ENERGY RESOURCES
SOUTHWEST IDAHO OIL AND GAS ACTIVITY
On January 24, 2020, High Mesa, Inc., and its subsidiaries, including AM Idaho, LLC, filed for
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas. Prior to
this filing, Snake River Oil & Gas LLC notified the Department of Lands that they would
assume operations for properties previously managed by AM Idaho LLC.

--- PAGE 14 ---

In the spring of 2020, six wells drilled by Bridge Resources in 2010—Espino #1-2, State #1-17,
ML Investments #1-10, Island Capitol #1-19, White #1-10, and Korn #1-22—were plugged and
abandoned. Later, in the fall of 2021, two new exploration wells, Harmon 2-14 and Fallon 1-11,
were drilled near Payette. Both wells were completed following production tests that indicated
commercial accumulations of wet gas at depths between 3,600 and 4,000 feet.
Due to falling oil and gas prices and disruptions caused by Covid pandemic, Snake River Oil and
Gas decided to shut in the field effective March 20, 2020. By mid-December 2020, five wells in
Willow Field were returned to production. Additionally, the Barlow 1-14 well began production,
marking the first output from Harmon Field since its discovery in 2018. Together, these six wells
produced an average of 4 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMCFGD), 42 barrels of condensate
per day (BCPD), and 6 barrels of water per day (BWPD).

Figure 9. Location of industrial mineral operations, excluding phosphate rock and aggregate, in
Idaho for 2020 – 2021.

--- PAGE 15 ---

Figure 10. Cope Sand and Gravel Pit, Canyon County, March 2020.

--- PAGE 16 ---

MINERAL EXPLORATION

The first half of 2020 was slow due to Covid, the resulting uncertainty and lower metal prices.
Prices started to rise significantly midway through the year and continued into 2021. Thus, the
overall 2020 – 2021 period was quite busy with numerous active exploration projects (Fig. 11).
Both gold and critical minerals were of particular interest.

Figure 11. Location of mineral exploration in Idaho, 2021. Green boxes are for industrial
minerals; blue triangles are geothermal; black crosshair is for oil and gas. Red dots or boxes are
all other commodities.

--- PAGE 17 ---

NORTH IDAHO AND WESTERN IDAHO

Bunker Hill Mining Corporation negotiated with owner Placer Mining Corporation to reduce the
option price by 30% on the Bunker Hill mine on the west end of the Coeur d’Alene district. The
company did 3-D modelling of the historic stopes, the known 8-million-ton Quill zinc-rich
orebody, and to define other targets. The mine was open for 95 years, and there were 3,500
historic drill holes to input in the model. In 2020, Bunker drilled ten core holes from surface and
underground (Fig. 12). In 2021, they completed 16 core holes, totaling 3000 feet, from
underground on the 9-level and a 23-line IP/resistivity survey at the surface. With the higher
silver price, Bunker Hill focused more on the silver content of the lead-zinc veins. The company
also worked on a water management plan which is a necessary component of their rapid restart
goal. The company completed a 43-101 report and a favorable preliminary economic analysis
(PEA) for a rapid restart of the mine above the water table.

Figure 12. Drilling underground at the Bunker Hill mine, 2020. Hole DDH # 7035A intercepted
1.5 m at 648 g/t Ag and 8% Pb; core is shown in the top photo.

--- PAGE 18 ---

Silver Valley Metals acquired the Ranger-Page project located just west of the Bunker Hill mine
in 2021. Several historic mines and multiple target opportunities were identified on the property
which has had little prior exploration.
The Silver Strand mine is located closer to the city of Coeur d’Alene and west of the main Silver
Valley. The mine, which was explored several years ago by New Jersey Mining Company, was
driven on a quartz vein hosted in Revett Quartzite. A small company, Silver Hammer Mining
Corp., formerly Lakewood Exploration, explored the property in 2021 for its precious metal
potential. Grab samples from the underground adit assayed as much as 2744 g/t Ag and 4.8 g/t
Au. Silver Hammer did minor rehabilitation work on the adit and started a drill program in
October 2021 to test the veins below the adit level. Drilling used a wooden platform for less
ground disturbance.
The Elk City area hosts large placer gold deposits and several lode deposits along the Orogrande
shear zone which extends north-south for 20 kilometers. Idaho Champion was one of several
small companies exploring the area in 2020. Outcrop is poor, but the geology generally consists
of metamorphic rocks, intruded by the Idaho batholith and small Tertiary plugs. Idaho Champion
acquired the old Baner mine and conducted a 2018 drill program based on IP work. An $8
million financing package in 2020 allowed additional work including soil geochemistry and
mapping as well as 2,200 meters of core drilling. Drilling intersected gold-bearing quartz-pyrite
veins in altered and fractured granodiorite. The Baner mine is on a subsidiary structure to the
Orogrande shear zone.
For the first time in decades, there was exploration interest within the western Idaho accreted
terranes. In 2021 a small company, Bald Eagle Gold Corp. acquired the shares of Anglo-Bomarc,
US, Inc., which had held claims for many years at the Hercules Silver Property in Washington
County. From 1965to 1988, Anglo-Bomarc completed considerable drilling of the 866-hectare
property on the west side of Cuddy Mountain. From the extensive surface work and drilling,
Anglo-Bomarc delineated a shallow silver resource within the Hercules Rhyolite values in the
300 to 950 g/t Ag range. Maps and files from the historic work were later donated to the Idaho
Geological Survey. In mid-2022, Bald Eagle changed their name to Hercules Silver Corporation.
Another small company, Constantine, was rumored to be exploring for volcanogenic massive
sulfides in the accreted terranes.

YELLOW PINE AREA, VALLEY COUNTY

Permitting for Midas Gold’s proposed Stibnite gold-antimony mine was ongoing and a topic of
significant interest and importance for Idaho’s mining industry in 2020 – 2021. The Plan of
Restoration and Operations (PRO) calls for mining the resource of 4 to 5 million troy ounces of
gold plus significant antimony as a way of paying for the clean-up and restoration of the
brownfields site which supplied antimony and tungsten for military efforts in World War I and
World War II. The Payette Forest released a Draft EIS in August 2020 followed by a 75-day
public comment period on the plan for three open pits, a $1 billion capital expenditure, 15-year
project life, and restoration of fish passage up the East Fork of the South Fork Salmon River at

--- PAGE 19 ---

the end of the mine. Paulsen and Company investors purchased a substantial stake in the
company in early 2020. The proven and probable reserve on the project was 4.8 million troy
ounces of gold (at 1.43 g/t Au grade) plus 148 million pounds of antimony.
A large number of public comments on the project were received, and the analysis prompted
Midas Gold and the Forest Service to write a supplemental EIS to address a modified mine plan.
That document was anticipated to be released in 2022. In February 2021, Midas changed its
name to Perpetua Resources and moved the corporate headquarters to Boise. They negotiated an
agreement with Ambri to use the antimony for manufacturing batteries. They also reached an
agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to initiate pre-mining emergency
removal actions designed to remediate historic World War II era waste and tailings that were
affecting waterways. Another issue was the Nez Perce tribe’s new declaration that mine
development would violate their treaty rights for fishing and potentially degrade water quality.
Just to the west of Stibnite and south of the town of Yellow Pine, Stallion Gold worked on their
Horse Heaven project located along the Golden Gate Shear zone on Antimony Ridge, another
historic antimony-gold-tungsten producer. IGS files contain considerable historical data on the
property. Stallion’s claims go back to 2012. As at Stibnite, several geologic models, including
intrusion-related gold and orogenic-style veins, were being assessed during exploration.

SALMON AREA, LEMHI COUNTY

In 2020 -2021, the region around the town of Salmon was a hotbed of exploration activity. Three
principal commodity groups were of interest: cobalt-copper, gold and rare earth elements
(REEs). Geologic settings in Lemhi County vary from Mesoproterozoic metamorphosed clastic
sedimentary rocks and bimodal igneous suites to Paleozoic and Cretaceous intrusions to Tertiary
volcanics and orogenic-style veins. The combination has generated one of Idaho’s most
mineralized and prospected regions with multiple target types and mineral deposits (Fig. 13).

--- PAGE 20 ---

Figure 13. Simplified geologic map of the Salmon area with outlines of STATEMAP-funded
mapping quadrangles in 2020 and locations of rare earth and cobalt occurrences.

In 2020 – 2021, only surface mapping and sampling were completed on the REE prospects in
Lemhi County. New Jersey Mining expanded their interests by acquiring the Diamond Creek and
Roberts claims north of Salmon and west of North Fork, respectively.
Near the old placer town of Leesburg, Revival Gold implemented a 10,000-meter diamond drill
program at their Beartrack mine and adjacent Arnett Creek gold properties, abbreviated as
BTAC. The Beartrack gold mine (Fig. 13), formerly operated by Meridian Gold, is along a
hydrothermal system that extends over 5 km along strike. Revival had three drill rigs working to
infill mineralization between the historic pits and ran a new IP-Resistivity survey combined with
new structural mapping (Fig. 14). Mineralization is localized along the north-south Coiner Fault
and the adjacent northeast-trending Panther Creek regional lineament, newly interpreted as part
of a single structural zone. Revival’s new 43-101 resource, released in February 2020, was 36 Mt
indicated resource at 1.16 g/t Au plus another 47 Mt inferred at Beartrack. Revival’s second
target was the nearby Arnett Creek property. In 2020 they drilled 30 holes and conducted 65
line-km of IP-Resistivity. In November, they released a Preliminary Economic Analysis for a
Phase 1 leach operation at Arnett. Oxidized gold mineralization is hosted in a Paleozoic intrusive
complex.
Work at BTAC continued in 2021 with an additional 20 core holes drilled for 4,880 meters.
Fifteen of those were at the Haidee mine at Arnett Creek and five were at the Joss area on the

--- PAGE 21 ---

south end of the Beartrack system. Intercepts on deep mineralization at Joss assayed 4 to 12 g/t
Au. Gold mineralization is hosted in highly sheared and altered Yellowjacket Formation host
rocks.

Figure 14. Core drilling at Revival’s Beartrack gold mine project, 2020.

Freeman Gold explored for gold at their Lemhi Gold Project by North Fork north of the town of
Salmon. The property includes historic placers and was drilled by FMC and AGR in the late
1980s as the Ditch Creek or Humbug oxide gold projects. Freeman added new claims and drilled
16 core holes for 3,328 meters in 2020. Visible gold was noted in core from several holes. They
returned the following year and finished with 35 holes for 7,149 meters drilled into quartz-veined
and highly faulted quartzites. Freeman found and sampled a new zone of mineralization to the
west and released an NI 43-101 report in July 2021.
Several smaller gold projects were acquired and drilled in 2020 – 2021. Most of these explored
historic, high-grade, underground mines without recent exploration. Companies and projects
included Gaia Metals drilling four core holes at their Gold Dyke property near Carmen and
Freeman Creeks northeast of Salmon, Hawkstone Mining at the Lone Pine project near the King
Solomon mine, US Gold at Johnny’s Point on Musgrove Creek, and Ophir Gold at the Breccia
project near the historic Gahsmith mine south of Musgrove Creek. Ophir discovered a silicified
breccia zone in 2020 and planned a 3,200-meter drill program in 2021 along with a CSAMT
geophysical survey. Gold mineralization there is part of a low sulfidation, epithermal system
along Musgrove Creek.

--- PAGE 22 ---

The Idaho Cobalt belt is a northwest-trending, 55-km long linear belt defined by multiple
copper-cobalt occurrences. The deposits are all hosted in banded or coarse siltite members of the
Mesoproterozoic Apple Creek Formation, suggesting a first-order stratigraphic control, though
many details of the genesis are uncertain. The Blackbird district was the largest historic producer
of copper and cobalt and is the location of Jervois Mining’s wholly owned Idaho Cobalt
Operation (ICO). Mineralization is present as cobaltite plus chalcopyrite. The fully permitted
ICO was acquired from eCobalt in 2019 to mine the RAM deposit discovered in 1997 by eCobalt
(formerly Formation Capital Corp.). The 2020 43-101 report listed a Measured and Indicated
resource of 5.24 Mt at 0.44% Co, 0.69% Cu, and 0.53 g/t Au plus additional inferred material
and exploration potential at the ICO. Jervois released a bankable feasibility study in 2020 and
started mill design and renewed initial construction. In 2021, the construction was approved and
additional facilities, including mill foundations, tailings storage facilities, portal benches and
components were being built. In mid-October, Jervois blasted the first round to open the West
Portal for the new underground mine, where they anticipated initial production in 2022 (Fig. 15).
Figure 15. New East and West portals at ICO, December 2021.

On the southeast end of the Idaho Cobalt belt, First Cobalt, a Canadian company had an
extensive drill program at Iron Creek in 2018-2019. The updated 43-101 resource from that work
was approximately 4.8 Mt at 0.3 % CoEq. In late 2020 the company completed an IP/Resistivity
survey over the property (Fig. 16). It was partly designed to trace mineralized zones under
Tertiary volcanic cover. They also sampled a newly recognized zone, named the Ruby, of
copper-cobalt mineralization on a logging road east of the No Name adit. Five-foot channel
samples of the Ruby roadcut assayed up to 0.48% cobalt, and the company doubled their land
position. Mineralization at Iron Creek is cobaltiferous pyrite with associated magnetite. They
drilled six core holes for 8,500 feet to the east and west of the Iron Creek resource to test
chargeability anomalies and continued metallurgical work with researchers at the Colorado
School of Mines (Fig. 16). In November 2021, First Cobalt changed its name to Electra Battery
Materials, to better reflect their ownership of a hydrometallurgical facility in Cobalt, Ontario.
Electra plans to make battery grade Co-sulfate needed for the Li-ion batteries used in electric
vehicles (EVs).

--- PAGE 23 ---

Figure 16. Map of chargeability results from survey over the Iron Creek property in 2020. From
a press release and corporate presentation by First Cobalt. Numbers refer to specific anomalies to
be tested.

EASTERN IDAHO

Two epithermal precious metal districts were being explored in eastern Idaho during 2020 -
2021. Excellon Resources acquired Otis Gold in February 2020. The all-shares acquisition
included the Kilgore project in Clark County and the Oakley project in Cassia County. Kilgore,
which hosts a 1-million-ounce gold resource, is a young volcanic and sediment-hosted system.
The Oakley claims at Cold and Blue Hill Creeks were optioned to Centerra Gold. In late 2021,
Excellon received a permit for additional drilling at Kilgore.
On the north edge of the eastern Snake River Plain, Idaho Champion acquired claims over the
Champagne gold mine in Butte County, a few miles west of Arco. The open pit mine was
operated by Bema in the early 1990s as a heap leach operation, and it closed in late 1992. Idaho
Champion started a 5,000-meter drill program and conducted surface geophysics and
geochemistry. The deposit is hosted in altered Tertiary volcanic rocks with a high-sulfidation
signature, and one objective was to explore for a deep copper porphyry underneath the mine and
the Lava Creek district (Fig. 17). In 2021, they completed 10 diamond drill holes for 3,432

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meters and added two IP lines. The geophysics detected a large chargeability anomaly, but it also
suggested the system was structurally detached. Initial drill results were compatible with
peripheral porphyry-style alteration.

Figure 17. View to northwest of the reclaimed Champagne mine, 2021, with argillic alteration.
Historic workings of the Lava Creek district are visible in the distance.

To the north of Arco is the historic mining town of Mackay in Custer County. Phoenix Copper
Ltd., formerly ExGen Resources and Konnex Resources, continued to explore the polymetallic
and copper skarns within a 23 sq. km claim block around the scenic Empire mine. In 2020,
Phoenix commenced a 32-hole program of mostly reverse circulation holes with a few core
holes; in 2021 they added another 4,500-meter program to test for deep sulfides below the pit.
They were working on a preliminary economic analysis for an open-pit, oxide copper mine as
well as hydrologic characterization and other environmental baseline studies. The late 2020
updated 43-101 resource included 238,000 ounces of Au, 7.6 M ounces of Ag, and good grades
of copper and zinc. They also explored a newly discovered prospect named Red Star.
Liberty Gold owns the flagship project in eastern Idaho at the Black Pine property in Cassia
County, and they had another extensive drill program in 2020 - 2021. Black Pine was mined by
Pegasus but closed in 1997 during low gold prices, and without conducting much district
exploration. Liberty drilled 46,000 meters in 2020 on the Carlin-type disseminated gold district
which covers 14 sq. km. They submitted an amended drill plan over 50 acres in January and had
3-4 drill rigs turning most of the year. Drilling in 2020 focused on the D-1 and D-2 areas and a
new discovery area, D-3. Initial metallurgical results were favorable, and the company started
looking for mine water supply sources. Drilling continued the next year with a 70,000-meter RC
program and that work intercepted a new discovery at the Rangefront target area, a down-faulted
pediment play (Fig. 18). In July 2021, Liberty released an initial indicated mineral resource of

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1.7 million ounces gold at a grade of 0.5 g/t Au. The district geology consists of structurally
stacked plates of Oquirrh Formation clastic rocks and limestones.

Figure 18. View to southeast at new Black Pine Rangefront D-4 discovery, located
approximately with the white arrow, on flat, tan-colored flat area just at base of hills in leftcenter of photo. Hole LBP358 assayed 1.23 g/t Au over 24 m and 1.37 g/t Au over 50 m.

SOUTHWEST IDAHO

South Mountain in Owyhee County is an isolated peak with outcropping limestone and clastic
sedimentary rocks of presumed Paleozoic age intruded by felsic to intermediate plutons.
Mineralization includes a zinc skarn and high-grade replacement deposits, known largely for
their prized ilvaite crystals. Owner, Thunder Mountain Gold, optioned the private property to Be
Metals. Be Metals continued Phase 2 fall 2020 drilling program of 25 holes for 8,000 feet, all
drilled from underground workings. Drilling extended the length of the Texas zone and was
infilled the DMEA zone. Intercepts included up to 21% Zn plus precious metals over 15 meters.
In 2021, they added an additional 3,500 feet of core drilling from surface and started
metallurgical work and a preliminary economic analysis. Mineralization is open at depth.
Integra Resources kept three rigs busy most of 2020 at their large DeLamar project in Owyhee
County. The site of Kinross’ mine which closed in 1998, the classic epithermal Silver City
district includes three mineralized centers: DeLamar, Florida Mountain, and War Eagle

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Mountain, from west to east, plus numerous greenfield targets referred to as the Black Sheep
area. Integra used 3D modelling to delineate ore types for engineering and metallurgy work and
conducted environmental baseline studies and water sampling. They also funded a 2-year
geologic mapping effort by the Idaho Geological Survey for two 7.5’ quadrangles encompassing
the area. In 2021, Integra drilled all year and continued permitting and engineering studies with a
goal of having a prefeasibility study (PFS) by the end of the year. The company evaluated heap
leach and milling options. Deep drilling under Florida Mountain intersected high-grade silver
mineralization like that described by the historic literature (Fig. 19). The geologic map of the
DeLamar and Swisher Mountain quadrangles was released by IGS in mid-2021 as DWM-193.

Figure 19. Drill core from FME-21_127 with 544’ – 545’ (red box, enlarged on right side)
assaying 28.3 g/t AuEq in crustiform quartz vein with Ag sulfide and pyrite infilling (yellow
circle enlargement). From Integra Resources drilling on Florida Mountain.