HAMILTON — More than 500 people packed a Hamilton auditorium Tuesday evening for a meeting opposing the Sheep Creek Rare Earth Exploration Project. The proposal for exploratory mining near the headwaters of the West Fork of the Bitterroot River is currently being reviewed by Bitterroot National Forest.
A panel of community leaders and environmental advocates urged attendees to voice their opinions to Forest Service officials during an ongoing 30-day public comment period. They walked the crowd through advice on crafting impactful comments and criticized U.S. Critical Materials’ proposal for the project.
“This is the headwaters of the Bitterroot River,” Heather Barber, executive director of the Bitterroot Water Partnership, told the crowd. “Whatever happens up there won't stay up there. The results will travel downstream to our communities, past tens of thousands of people, and the consequences will be felt by those of us who live here, whose families and businesses depend on clean water.”
With the Sheep Creek Project, located about 40 miles southwest of Darby, U.S Critical Materials is in search of rare earth elements, which they say are key for national security. Company representatives were not involved in the meeting. They have repeatedly stressed that the proposal is just an exploration to better understand the area’s geology, not a full-scale mine.
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But the project has received a lot of pushback, including at a packed meeting with the Ravalli County Commissioners in December of 2025. At that meeting, more than 700 people turned up, voicing concerns about the project’s inclusion on the FAST-41 Transparency List — part of a program intended to streamline, but not speed-up federal review of infrastructure projects.
“We invited people to speak, and we were there for several hours listening to you, the citizens of Ravalli County, who turned out en masse. We received not one comment in support of the mine or the FAST-41. Not one,” Ravalli County Commission Chair Dan Huls told the audience Tuesday.
After the December meeting, the Board of Commissioners wrote a letter to Montana’s federal delegation, opposing the project’s inclusion on the FAST-41 list. Last week, they penned another letter, this time to the Forest Service, once again opposing the project.
“The risk is far too great,” Huls said.
U.S. Critical Materials previously told MTN that their samples so far suggest that common mining problems, like acid rock drainage and asbestos, would not be an issue. They said the exploration would allow them to learn more.
Speakers at the meeting said they still have concerns, especially about potential risks to public health, water quality and wildlife.
“This plan leaves basic questions unanswered,” Philip Ramsey, a West Fork resident with a background in mining, told the crowd. “The Bitterroot begins there. We should understand the risks before the first blast.”
Ravalli County Economic Development Authority director Julie Foster spoke of concerns that the proposal could impact the Bitterroot’s economy.
“Nearly one in five jobs in Ravalli County, 3,715 of them, are in sectors that the mine could most affect: accommodation, food service, tourism, recreation and agriculture,” she said.
Rancher and real estate broker Dan Kerslake is one of the thousands who relies on the Bitterroot River. He has been following the Sheep Creek project and attended Tuesday’s meeting to learn more about where it stands now.
“We support our families with clean water to grow clean crops to feed this valley and other valleys around us and communities throughout the U.S. So, obviously, this is pretty important to us,” he said. “Definitely, it's very transparent right now what's happening and what could happen to our community. That's fisheries, public health, agriculture, I mean all of our economic drivers here.”
U.S. Critical Materials has submitted multiple draft operations plans to the Forest Service. The agency is analyzing the most recent draft revision, from mid-June, under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Under NEPA, the agency will first analyze the draft to see if it would not have a significant impact and, thus, could qualify for an exclusion from more detailed environmental reviews. After that, if needed, the Forest Service will conduct any additional analysis.
At Tuesday’s meeting, speakers urged the audience to submit comments calling for more an intensive environmental review. Lisa Ronald, who works for nonprofit American Rivers, spoke to the crowd about the public comment process.
“Every single one of you plays a really critical role in what happens to Sheep Creek Mine going forward,” she said. “We're gonna thank the Forest Service, we’re gonna tell them to change course and we're gonna tell them, ‘I’m a Bitterrooter and this is why I love this place.’”
The public comment period runs through September 13th. Many at the meeting were eager to share their thoughts with their neighbors and with the Forest Service.
“I just think this, in general, is important to our community for a lot of different ways. The Bitterroot is very close-knit as a community. We all coexist really well together,” Kerslake said. “I think the community friction that we have together is awesome.”
