By Katy Spence
In early January, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the water-use permit granted by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to Sandfire Resources, which plans to pump and impound large volumes of groundwater at its proposed Black Butte Copper Mine, in Meagher County. This is an extremely difficult loss for MEIC, Earthworks, American Rivers, and Montana Trout Unlimited, who still contend that the permit did not address — or mitigate — up to 457 acre-feet of the groundwater that would have to be removed from the mine each year in order to facilitate mining operations.
Without this final hurdle, Sandfire Resources appears to be free to pursue mining at the Sheep Creek facility at the headwaters of the Smith, though no moves have been made as of this writing to submit the bond required for actual mining. Should the mine proceed, MEIC and our partners will watchdog any activity at the mine site and alert you of actions that can be taken.
This article was published in the March 2025 issue of Down To Earth.
