Canadian company moves to reopen Idaho silver mine from 1880s, 1970s
A Canadian mining company earlier this month submitted a plan for a silver and gold mine in Southwest Idaho that would resume operations in areas previously extracted in the late 1800s and 1900s.
Integra, which does business in the Boise area as DeLamar Mining Co., submitted a revised mine plan of operations to the Bureau of Land Management in early April, according to a company news release. Such plans typically include an overview of how a mining company plans to extract resources, as well as environmental safety plans and post-project cleanup.
The BLM’s Owyhee Field Office did not respond to Idaho Statesman requests for copies of the plan, which were not available on the agency’s website Wednesday.
The mine would extract silver and gold from the “historic DeLamar and adjacent Florida mountain deposits” in the Owyhees, according to Integra’s project description. The deposits are just west of Silver City, a historic ghost town that’s still home to a few operating businesses in the summer tourist season.
Like Silver City, DeLamar boomed in the late 1800s when gold and silver deposits were first found, according to accounts from the National Register of Historic Places. Mining resumed in the 1970s, when Earth Resources Corporation established an open-pit mine, into the late 1990s.
If approved, the future DeLamar mine would also be an open-pit mine. It’s unclear if the new project would overlap with the previous mine, and to what extent.
Integra’s website says it acquired the DeLamar project from Kinross Gold Corp. in 2017 and has been working on project development since. BLM records and mining industry news site Mining Technology show BLM has already determined some parts of the project adequate and accepted a mine plan of operations in June 2024.
Integra said in its news release that the submission of the mining plan of operations triggers the BLM to begin evaluating potential environmental impacts of the project, which will then lead to a public comment period and other government analyses. The process will likely take several years, though Integra in its news release applauded an executive order from President Donald Trump that accelerates mineral production.
The DeLamar announcement comes as two other mining projects announced major moves in Idaho. Near Idaho City, the CuMo copper mine project recently got the OK for exploratory drilling, and the U.S. Forest Service earlier this year issued a permit for Perpetua Resources to revive the open-pit gold and antimony Stibnite Mine in the Payette National Forest.
