Liberty Gold (LGD.TO) on Wednesday said it has submitted the draft mine plan of operations for the Black Pine oxide gold project in Idaho and signed an interagency memorandum of understanding to facilitate coordination of the project's entire mine permitting process.

Liberty Gold submitted the draft MPO to the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and Idaho Department of Lands as a precursor to the initiation of the federal permitting process under the National Environmental Protection Act.

The permitting process will culminate in the completion of an environmental impact statement for Black Pine. The launch of the process represents a major step in advancing Black Pine to a construction decision, the company said.

The EIS process will include a detailed review of the MPO, public scoping meetings, analysis of extensive baseline studies and an assessment of potential environmental and socioeconomic effects with proposed mitigations.

Stantec has been retained as the independent third-party EIS contractor and will work under the direction of the USFS to prepare the Black Pine EIS and related documentation.

Meanwhile, the execution of the interagency MOU formalizes a collaborative partnership between Liberty Gold, USFS, BLM, the Idaho Governor's Office of Energy and Mineral Resources, IDEQ and IDL for completion of the EIS.

The MOU establishes a roadmap with timelines for the permitting process and defines the roles and objectives of all parties.