The revised exploration plan for the Sheep Creek project south of Darby put its first field season at July through November 2026. It is now early October. The Bitterroot National Forest's project page, last updated August 14, lists no decision date, and no Forest Service decision has been reported since. Montana's Department of Environmental Quality has told the company it needs a state exploration license, and DEQ's public list of pending hardrock applications does not show one.
Sheep Creek has had a loud year, with hundreds of comments at a county meeting, a full auditorium in Hamilton and thousands of letters to the Forest Service. Even so, the project is still at the paperwork stage, and the next step depends on a filing that only U.S. Critical Materials can make.
The Plan on Paper
Sheep Creek has changed shape more than once, so it helps to pin down which version is live. In December 2025, U.S. Critical Materials, known as USCM, filed a draft plan of operations with the Forest Service. That draft projected 8 to 10 truckloads a day on Highway 473 at peak extraction. The company withdrew it after heavy criticism and said a reduced version would follow in April.
The current proposal relies mostly on helicopters from R&R Connor Aviation. It allows up to 2,200 flights in one season, about 1,900 of them short hops inside the project area. Rock samples would be flown out in woven "super sacks" to one to three staging areas on private land. From there, up to two pickup-and-trailer loads a day would carry the material to a lab. CEO Scott Osterman declined to say where the staging sites are or whether any are close to Darby.
The Forest Service describes the work as bulk rock sampling, surface drilling and controlled blasting inside tunnels. About 3,000 tons of material would be collected over two field seasons. The federal permitting dashboard lists four sites: one for bulk sampling and three for diamond-core drilling. It puts total surface disturbance at about 0.3 acres, includes a winter shutdown, and says the work involves no road building, ore processing or commercial extraction. The minerals named include gallium, samarium, scandium, neodymium and praseodymium.
Three Approvals, None Issued
Exploration can't start until each of the reviews below is finished. Here is the latest public status of each one as of October 4, 2026.
| Review | Who decides | Latest public status |
|---|---|---|
| Federal plan of operations | Bitterroot National Forest, West Fork Ranger District | Comment period ended Sept. 13; project page, last updated Aug. 14, shows "Developing Proposal" with no decision date; no later decision reported |
| Endangered Species Act consultation | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | Planned, not complete |
| State exploration license | Montana DEQ | License required as of July 23; no application on DEQ's pending list |
The federal dashboard counts zero of four review processes complete. It estimates review and permitting will wrap up on August 17, 2027, and shows an extension of almost three months added at some point. Taken together with the winter shutdown in the plan, that means the earliest realistic field work is a 2027 season.
The State License USCM Hasn't Applied For
The state review matters because USCM tried to avoid it. On July 20, Osterman emailed DEQ asking the agency to rule that the Metal Mine Reclamation Act did not apply to Sheep Creek. His argument was that 0.3 acres is not a "material disturbance" and that the Forest Service's reclamation controls are as strong as Montana's.
DEQ Director Sonja Nowakowski answered on July 23. The agency had no authority to grant an exemption, she wrote, and the correct next step was an exploration license application, which DEQ would review under both the reclamation act and the Montana Environmental Policy Act. The agency also wrote that the company's small-disturbance argument:
"ignores the plain reading of the statutory text."
A DEQ spokesperson said the agency knew of no administrative appeal process for that kind of request. Osterman told the Daily Montanan on July 28 that the company hadn't decided whether to apply or to dispute the ruling, and that a decision would likely come that week. More than two months later, there's no public sign of either an application or a challenge. Until USCM files, the state review can't start, and the state review is a hard requirement no matter how the federal side turns out.
Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, made the DEQ correspondence public. He said he agrees a domestic source of critical minerals is "vital for national security." He also said "it is time for this project to come to an end."
The Forest Service's Open Question
On the federal side, the open question is how deep the environmental review goes. The Bitterroot National Forest's August 14 notice explained that federal environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, starts by checking whether a project fits a categorical exclusion, the fastest review track. The Forest is doing that now, and it will decide on a fuller review if the analysis calls for one. The federal dashboard also lists an Environmental Assessment as a planned process.
Comments have piled up. The Forest Service's public Reading Room for the project shows 6,429 total letters, with entries dated as late as Sept. 14. Some may be duplicates or late arrivals, and the portal doesn't say how many distinct comments came in by the deadline. The Clark Fork Coalition filed comments on Sept. 10 urging the Forest to prepare a full Environmental Assessment. The formal window is closed, but the Forest says it will keep accepting comments throughout the review.
The Office on South Main
USCM's June 30 announcement said the company was relocating its headquarters from Salt Lake City to Darby and would move its principal operations there. It described a local project office that would coordinate outreach, community meetings, presentations and tours. The address given was 206 S. Main, Unit B, and the company expected it to open to the public in the second half of July.
On July 28, Osterman said the office was "not quite open." A Darby resident's letter in the Bitterroot Star on Aug. 5 described it as furnished but without staff. The company's own office page still describes the office as being set up and lists no hours or events. In July, Osterman said he planned to hire an office manager and a summer intern who would work as a geophysicist. No public report has confirmed either hire. So far, the Darby-area economic activity USCM has talked about exists only as company statements.
Who Has Weighed In
The public record has grown steadily, and every new item has come from people outside the company:
- December 1, 2025: Hundreds commented at a Ravalli County meeting, and commissioners voted unanimously to send a letter opposing the project's place on the FAST-41 fast-track list.
- March 2026: The Ravalli County Collaborative, a 15-member committee appointed by the county, urged agencies to deny permits, citing water, wildlife, local livelihoods and services.
- July 2026: U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke told Montana Public Radio that fast-tracking was inappropriate given the information gaps.
- August 19, 2026: About 600 people filled the Hamilton High School Performing Arts Center for an opposition meeting. Speakers included Alex Ocañas of the Bitterroot Water Partnership.
- Early September 2026: The Hamilton City Council voted unanimously to send the Forest Service a letter written by Council Member Jenny West. All six members signed it.
- Late September 2026: A reply attributed to Sen. Tim Sheehy, reprinted in the Bitterroot Star, opposed approving the project and asked the Permitting Council to take it off the fast-track list.
The Daily Montanan has described opposition across the political spectrum. There is another view. In a February Bitterroot Star column, Paul E. Roege argued that Sheep Creek should be evaluated as a possible domestic source of critical minerals using modern mining methods and environmental standards.
Following It From Here
The next real change will show up in one of these places:
- DEQ's hardrock program page. A Sheep Creek exploration license application on the pending list would be the first sign the state review has started.
- The Bitterroot National Forest project page, number 370721. A NEPA start date, or a choice between a categorical exclusion and an Environmental Assessment, would be posted here. Comments can still be sent to [email protected].
- The West Fork Ranger District, at 406-821-3269, for questions about the project on the ground.
- The federal Permitting Dashboard, which tracks the August 2027 target date and any further extensions.
Until one of those changes, Sheep Creek stays where it has been all year: an exploration proposal under federal review that still needs a state license application before work can begin.
If you own land in the West Fork or anywhere in the upper Bitterroot and want to talk through what news like this means for your own plans, Montana Homes by Jani is happy to sit down with you. We follow these stories as neighbors, and a conversation with us comes with no pressure to do anything.
