A mine in the Idaho wilderness?

The joy and revelry surrounding the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Wilderness Act had barely quieted when the U.S. Forest Service issued a draft decision last week to allow a road and 11 pads where core drilling will sample the ore structure for the Golden Hand gold mine in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in North-Central Idaho. Keith Lannom, supervisor of the Payette National Forest, knew his decision would be unpopular. He knows people won't understand why he is allowing American Independence Mines and Minerals Co. to construct 4 miles of temporary road and reopen an old mine tunnel near Big Creek, about 50 miles northeast of McCall in the heart of the wilderness named after the Idaho senator who fought to protect it. That road will connect with another that also will be improved outside the wilderness boundary. Lannom also knows that Church and others who wrote that 1964 law compromised to allow existing mining claims to be protected. And since no one has been able to overturn the 1872 Mining Act, Lannom does not have the choice of saying mining can't go forward, even in a wilderness area. "Federal mining laws dictate that the mining can take place, and the Forest Service does not have the ability to circumvent those laws," Lannom said...more