Clean Kilgore Coalition Expands to Fight Toxic Open-pit, Heap-leach, Cyanide Gold Mine in Eastern Idaho

DRIGGS, Idaho – A growing number of Idaho hunters, anglers, farmers, ranchers, outdoor recreationists, families, and conservationists have come together through the Clean Kilgore Coalition to protect the precious water, land, and outdoor heritage that is being threatened by a toxic gold mine in Kilgore.  

“The Kilgore project is another example of an ill-sited mining project that will place our most valuable natural resource, clean water, at risk for the sake of corporate profits,” said Nick Kunath, Conservation Director at Idaho Rivers United. 

The coalition, founded in 2021 by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Idaho Conservation League, this summer added Idaho Rivers United, Friends of Camas National Wildlife Refuge, the Mountain West Recreation Alliance, the Sierra Club of Idaho, and the Henry’s Fork Wildlife Alliance to its ranks. 

“Idaho Rivers United is proud to be a member of the growing coalition fighting to stop this project before it starts,” Kunath added.  

Coalition members have spent this summer across Eastern Idaho, meeting landowners and elected officials, knocking on doors, and attending community events to raise awareness and build grassroots support for this work. The growing coalition hopes to enact a county-level cyanide mining ban to protect Clark County’s precious water resources, and to ask Congress to permanently protect these lands from hardrock mining. 

Nestled in the Centennial Mountains, Kilgore is a small agricultural town where ranchers graze cattle, generations of Idahoans come to recreate, and elk, grizzly bears, and wolverines reside. In the hills above Kilgore, a gold exploration project threatens the lands and water that its farmers, ranchers, and wildlife rely on. 

“An important piece of the Friends of Camas' mission statement is to preserve and protect the refuge and its resources, which this mine could directly threaten,” said Jess McDermont, a Friends of Camas National Wildlife Refuge board member. “Joining the coalition puts us in concert with organizations across Idaho and shows the interconnectedness of the work to protect Idaho's public lands and wild places. Collectively, we have the power to stop this mine.” 

This exploratory drilling project led by financially unstable, Canadian mining company Excellon Resources is located on 12,000 acres of Forest Service land and could lead to 10 miles of new roads, 140 drill pads, and 420 exploration drill holes on the mountainside above West Camas and Corral Creeks. The resulting open-pit, heap-leach, cyanide gold mine would threaten the cold, clear creeks that recharge the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, the only source of clean drinking water for 300,000 Idahoans. 

The Clean Kilgore Coalition is a group of ranchers, outdoor recreationists, families, and conservationists committed to protecting eastern Idaho’s waters, lands, and way of life. Coalition members have been working to protect the western Centennial Mountains outside of Kilgore from toxic cyanide gold mining since 2021 through grassroots advocacy and legal action.