Abstract
The proposed reopening of the Stibnite Gold Mine in Idaho has been heralded as a model for the future of modern hardrock mining. This project has received national interest in light of the growing domestic demand for critical minerals essential to climate-friendly energy technologies and national security. But beneath its green branding lies a deeper legal and public health crisis. Operating under the General Mining Law of 1872—a relic of frontier-era resource exploitation—the Stibnite Gold Project exemplifies how an outdated legal framework continues to enable environmental and human harm. While policymakers tout the domestic necessity of critical minerals, the Stibnite Gold Project underscores an inconvenient truth: without fundamental reform, modern mining will replicate the same toxic legacies of the past in Idaho and beyond. This Comment examines how the legal structure governing Stibnite enables inadequate environmental oversight, externalizes public health costs, and exposes communities to long-term risks of contamination. It argues that unless Congress enacts comprehensive mining law reform, the climate friendly energy revolution will come at the expense of public health— perpetuating, rather than preventing, a new era of environmental injustice.
Recommended Citation
Faith Quigley,
Fool's Gold: The Stibnite Gold Project, Critical Minerals, and the Public Health Perils of Antiquated Hardrock Mining Laws,
62
Idaho L. Rev.
149
().
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.uidaho.edu/idaho-law-review/vol62/iss1/6
First Page
149
Last Page
188