The agency issued a draft decision approving Canadian company Ascot Resources Ltd.’s plans to drill for copper and gold in Washington’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The decision opens a 45-day period for the public to object to the U.S. Forest Service’s draft decision.
Cowlitz Valley District Ranger Gar Abbas acknowledged in the report that “there is a great deal of concern that this decision somehow makes the potential for future approval of a new mine in this area easier or more likely.”
Abbas went on to stress the permit is not for mining, but for exploratory drilling. If Ascot decides there are enough resources to make it financially viable to open a mine, they would have to go through an additional permitting process.
The area in question is about 900 acres of forestland 12 miles northeast of the Mount St. Helens crater. It sits just outside the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. A permit approval would allow Ascot to test drill at 63 sites within the Green River Valley near Goat Mountain.
