The Big Blackfoot River is one of the most famous in all of fly fishing, thanks to Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It. It’s also at the center of a new controversy over mining and data centers in the west. Earlier this month, Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved a permit for an Australian mining company to explore deposits in the headwaters of the Big Blackfoot River.
“The exploration activities are authorized to take place near Lincoln, with up to 1.53 acres of surface disturbance on ground previously disturbed by exploration activities,” DEQ said in a statement. “Proposed surface drilling is authorized to total up to 14,359 feet in drill holes, may reach a maximum depth of 2,296 feet, and is anticipated to intersect the groundwater table. No new access roads are authorized to be constructed, but operations may include overland travel. Reclamation of the disturbance is required.”
While the claim to explore the profitability of a gold mine in the area isn’t an ironclad guarantee a full-scale mine will happen in the future, it’s worrisome enough that old-timers and conservationists in the area are quick to remind others of the Blackfoot’s mining history. The Blackfoot suffered from mine pollution when the Mike Horse Dam failed in 1975. That dam held back significant toxic mine tailings, and when it failed, Montana’s Department of Justice estimates that it led to 100,000 tons of toxic tailings making their way into the Blackfoot.
The Blackfoot was so polluted that it couldn’t be used for filming when Robert Redford turned MacLean’s story into a movie. The crew had to film on the Gallatin River instead. The Blackfoot has recovered well, but it wasn’t even until 2020 that all the contaminated materials were finally removed from the Mike Horse Dam site.
That history has locals worried, and many others calling for some sort of pause on the proposed gold mine.
David Brooks, the executive director for Montana Trout Unlimited, told Sage Marshall that “since the mines proposed for the Blackfoot are still in exploratory stages, there’s not much that can be done—for now. Court challenges are likely the best path to stopping them, despite the fact that the public is overwhelmingly against the new mines.”
That puts most of the folks who are against the mines in a wait-and-see pattern.