Perpetua Resources Corp. selected Iron Woman Construction and Environmental Services to conduct environmental improvements in the historical Stibnite Mining District in 2023. Iron Woman is a Native American Member-owned company with extensive experience resolving water infrastructure, environmental, mining and logistics challenges across the Rocky Mountains, including Idaho. Beginning in early summer 2023, Iron Woman will support Perpetua Resources to move more than 300,000 tons of legacy mine waste away from sensitive waterways on-site and continue efforts to restore impacted riparian areas.
“We did not cause the problems facing the historical Stibnite Mining District, but we are proud to be part of the solution and look forward to continuing our work to improve water quality on-site,” said Laurel Sayer, President & CEO of Perpetua Resources. “In 2022, we made significant progress to address decades-old problems by isolating streams from historically contaminated material along with other contamination removal actions. Now, I am excited to welcome Iron Woman to our team to continue this important work.”
In 2021, Perpetua was granted permission from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct time-critical early action cleanup activities at the abandoned Stibnite mine site. Cleanup work under the first phase of the agreement started in 2022 and, after a competitive bidding process, Iron Woman was selected by Perpetua Resources to help with cleanup activities planned for 2023. Work this year will include removing between 300,000 and 325,000 tons of legacy waste and tailings away from rivers on-site, safe storage of the material, and significant restoration work surrounding the rivers. Cleanup activities will be overseen by the EPA and USDA.
“From our Native American roots, a sustainable approach to projects has always been an Iron Woman guiding principle,” said Shaun Egan, CEO of Iron Woman Construction and Environmental Services. “We are proud to work in partnership with Perpetua Resources on this important project. We strive to be a force for good in the communities in which we work. We believe that our history of responsible environmental stewardship and commitment to safety will help to ensure that this project meets the needs of the people it touches.”
Iron Woman is expected to start work in June 2023 with a team of over 30 people, largely recruited from the local region, focused on removing waste from three areas of site that parallel the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River. The locations of the work sit outside the footprint of Perpetua’s proposed Stibnite Gold Project and would be left untouched if it wasn’t for the company’s voluntary cleanup efforts. While the multidisciplinary general contractor already has a highly trained workforce, Iron Woman intends to actively recruit from the communities closest to the site to fill any openings on the project. The Iron Woman team will be based at the site in a pre-existing exploration camp to eliminate the need for daily commuting.
The name Iron Woman is an homage to founder Shaun Egan’s great-great-great-grandmother, a full-blooded Blackfeet Indian. Iron Woman’s civil, environmental, and mining background includes mass earthmoving, hazardous materials management, remediation, mine closure, landfill cap and cover, tailings management, waste placement, revegetation, water quality control and diversion, and river/stream restoration.
