The Washington State Department of Ecology has issued all the permits for Crown Resources, a fully owned subsidiary of Kinross Gold Corporation, Canada to mine the heart of gold out of Buckhorn Mountain and in the process remove all the groundwater that feeds the five creeks that flow and provide the habitat for fish and wildlife in the area. The underground mine plan would transport 100 large trucks a day up and down Marias Creek Road and the Kettle River Road to bring ore to the Kinross cyanide mill and tailings pond near Republic.

This mine encompasses the same ore body that was targeted by Crown Resources and its previous partner Battle Mountain Gold Company, for an open pit mine known as the "Crown Jewel Project" (CJP). The proposed CJP was abandoned after the Pollution Control Hearings Board’s (PCHB) January 2000 decision reversing the Ecology’s approval of water rights and vacated Ecology’s issuance of a Section 401 water quality certification.