INYO MOUNTAINS - KEYNOT MINE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT

May, 1982 Vi Grasso

The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund has appealed before the Department of Interior, Board of Land Appeals, the decision of the Bureau of Land Management to grant a permit on the application of McFarland to proceed with the development of mining operations to explore for ore deposits, allegedly gold, in the area Keynot mountain. Following is a digest of such appeal. The filed document has 96 pages with exhibits in the form of Declarations submitted by experts in the fields of environmental sciences, geology and historical environments. The Appeal is based on the contention that the applicant has no valid existing rights, that the mineral report is deficient and that it fails to justify the economic feasibility of development of the Keynot claims. McFarland's report was submitted back in 1976, and now resubmitted in substantially the same form with no reasonable changes to show mitigation of effects of development in the area. The report apparently overestimates the grade of the mining dump and the recovery of ore deposits that may be encountered. The appeal states that BLM erred in qualifying the average grade of gold recovery and that it conducted sampling methods which failed to account for the variations value between samples all in order to justify the filing application and subsequent approval of the applicant' s mining report and issuance of the permit for all-out development of access, grading activity, mining operations and use of the area's resources. The appeal also goes on to say that the monetary recovery has been overestimated in that the applicant and BLM erred in tonnage estimates. If allowed, the operation of the mine would make additional demands in already scarce water supplies thereby affecting the already tenuous wildlife and habitats; the mining operation in itself would necessarily contaminate the water reservoirs with the substances residue such as sodium cyanide and calcium chloride leaching into the soil. In this regard, BLM failed to issue an environmental impact report as to the effects of such activity in a wilderness designated zone* and in addition failed to comply with the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act, all to the benefit of the applicant and arbitrarily approving the mining plan as presented in its form and substance, and without even the provision of reclamation or restoration that would be effective at the end of a proposed 10 year project. What semblance of reclamation provision there is, is inadequate because the extent of the area which must be disturbed in order to build an 8.5 mile road which runs along the crest from the Burgess mine would obviously be an irreversible ecological scarring of the area. The construction of such road would significantly destroy a good portion of the unique beauty containing the only stand of ancient Bristlecone pines that provide habitat for the increasingly threatened Desert Bighorn Sheep. The Inyo Mountains area was recommended last year by the Secretary of Interior for a wilderness designation. BLM should deny road access in a proposed wilderness designated area in accordance with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. * Proposed FLPMA

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