The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Coeur Rochester Plan of Operations Amendment 10 Project, Pershing County, Nev. in the Federal Register on June 27, 2014, and will seek input from the public and stakeholders about the potential scope of the document.
Coeur Rochester, Inc., has requested an expansion of their operations at the existing Coeur Rochester Mine, which is located approximately 18 miles northeast of Lovelock in the Humboldt Range.
The mine is currently authorized disturbance of 1,930 acres (approximately 189 acres of private land and 1,741 acres of public land). Proposed changes to their operations presented under this Plan of Operations modification would encompass 531 acres, of which 157 acres are already disturbed. A total of 348 acres of new disturbance is proposed on public land, as well as 26 acres on private land. All proposed disturbance would be within the existing approved Plan boundary.
Federal, state and local agencies and other individuals or organizations that may be interested in or affected by BLM's decision on the Coeur Rochester Mine Project are invited to participate in the scoping process with respect to this EIS.
The BLM will hold two public open-houses on the proposal, in Lovelock, Nev. on July 9, 2014 from 5 - 7 p.m., at the Lovelock Community Center in the Seven Troughs/Rochester Room, 820 6th Street; and in Winnemucca on July 10, 2014 from 5 - 7 p.m., at the Winnemucca Convention Center in the West Hall, 50 W Winnemucca Blvd. Public comments will be accepted at both meetings.
Written comments are encouraged and may be submitted through July 27, 2014 to Kathleen Rehberg, Project Lead, Attn: Coeur Rochester Mine EIS, BLM Winnemucca District Office, 5100 E. Winnemucca Blvd., Winnemucca NV 89445-2921.
Issues expected to be analyzed in the EIS include: potential impacts to visual, wildlife and cultural resources; and the potential for waste rock, heap leach or pit walls to produce acid rock drainage or heavy metals. Other resources that will be analyzed include the following: air quality, environmental justice, geology and minerals, invasive species, lands and reality, Native American religious concerns, paleontology, range management, recreation, social and economic values, threatened, endangered, candidate and sensitive species, vegetation, and soils.
A range of alternatives will be developed to address the issues identified during public scoping. Mitigating measures will be considered to minimize environmental impacts and to assure the proposed action does not result in unnecessary or undue degradation of public lands.
For further information, please contact, Kathleen Rehberg, project lead, at the BLM Winnemucca District Office, 5100 E. Winnemucca Blvd, (775) 623-1500.[[In-content Ad]]
