The Daily Inter Lake

The Kootenai National Forest has issued a permit to an Idaho mining company to carry out exploratory drilling in the Libby Creek area southeast of Libby.

Libby Creek Ventures, based in Spirit Lake, Idaho, announced the permit and its plans to explore for copper and silver in a press release last week.

The company intends to drill 1,200 feet in a first phase of exploration, and 20 times that distance in a second phase of drilling in the Libby and Ramsey Creek areas, said Arnold Bakie, president of Libby Creek Ventures.

"Our overall business plan involves primary targets is expected to approach over 55,000 feet of diamond core drilling in the near term of two to five years," Bakie said.

"We believe there are valuable mineral ore deposits which yet be exploited," Bakie said. "Our doing so could prove beneficial to the local economic dynamics, and the overall regional economy, after years of depressed ore values."

Exploration will occur in the same vicinity as the old Montanore site that was pursued by the Noranda mining company. The Libby Creek site is just outside the southeastern boundary of the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness and just a few air miles from the Rock Creek mine that is being pursued by Revett Minerals on the west side of the wilderness.

Exploration is a long way from actual mine development and production, if Rock Creek serves as an example.

Rock Creek project development, along with environmental reviews, took nearly 14 years before the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality issued permits for it in 2001. It has been tangled in environmental litigation and additional, court-ordered environmental analysis since then.