NEVADA COUNTY, Calif. — After years of meetings in Nevada County, this week is the last chance for people to come and voice their opinions on the potential reopening of the Idaho-Maryland gold mine.
One by one, hundreds of Nevada County residents made their voices clear to the board of supervisors.
"We’re definitely here to tell our story and remind the supervisors of why this mine is a really bad idea for this community," said Christy Hubbard with Community Environmental Advocates.
The company, Rise Gold Corp., brought the Idaho-Maryland mine back in 2017 with the hopes to reopen it, believing there's still a good amount of gold left. It's been a years-long battle to get to this week's meeting, the final meeting for public comment before the board of supervisors makes its final decision.
"This would have a big positive impact on the community, on the economy, on jobs, on the tax base," said Rise Gold CEO Joe Mullin.
Back in December, the company tried to bypass the California Environmental Quality Act by claiming vested rights, saying the intent was always to continue mining after it stopped in the 1950s. However, the county rejected that attempt. On top of that, last May, the county's planning commission recommended the board deny Rise Gold's request to reopen the mine following the Environmental Impact Report.
"This level of mining and processing activity could be considered inconsistent with the rural character and quality of life of the surrounding area," said staff from the county's planning commission.
Rise Gold reiterated the positive impacts the mine would have on the community Thursday. During the meeting, renderings showed what the project site would look like, even including images showing the mine would be out of sight from the main road. Some people in the crowd chuckled and responded by saying, "yeah right."
"Rise has had plenty of opportunities to compromise. In fact, it’s been really remarkable how little they’ve tried to work with the Wells Coalition community or even with NID (Nevada Irrigation District)," said Hubbard.
If the board ends up denying this project, Rise Gold says it will look into all of its legal options, including a lawsuit or demanding the county to pay them what the property is worth. Rise Gold staff say the property is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Regardless of what decision is made, people opposed say they're not giving up until the project is completely shut down.
"We’re in this fight for the long haul," said Hubbard.
Public comment is expected to go until 7 p.m. Thursday and a decision will come by Friday morning.
