Permitting Council Executive Director Tours Castle Mountain Mine Phase 2 Project
Contact Information
Permitting Council Press Office (media@permitting.gov)
WASHINGTON (December 12, 2025) – Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) Executive Director Emily Domenech recently toured the FAST-41 covered Castle Mountain Mine Phase 2 project. The project is one of only three commercial scale gold mines operating in California. The expansion of this mine would quadruple its annual mining rate from 18 million tons to 80 million tons per year.
“I am grateful to the team at Castle Mountain Venture for the informative behind the scenes look at their operation,” said Emily Domenech, Permitting Council Executive Director. “This project expands the domestic production of gold, and we are excited to see how FAST-41 can get Castle Mountain Venture to the federal permitting finish line.”
Executive Director Domenech toured the site to learn more about project sponsor Castle Mountain Venture’s plans to expand this currently permitted, operational gold and silver open pit and heap leach mine located in San Bernardino County, California. The project includes the expansion of mine pits, overburden sites, an additional heap leach pad and the installation of utilities, to include a 16.5 mile overhead powerline crossing from Nevada to California and a 32-mile water pipeline. The mine is surrounded by the Castle Mountains National Monument and the Mojave National Preserve in California, and the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in southern Nevada.
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management leads federal permitting for the project. Learn more about the Castle Mountain Mine Phase 2 project on the Federal Permitting Dashboard.
About the Permitting Council and FAST-41
Established in 2015 by Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41), the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) is a federal agency charged with improving the transparency and predictability of the federal environmental review and authorization process for certain critical infrastructure projects. The Permitting Council is composed of the Permitting Council Executive Director, who serves as the Council Chair; 13 federal agency Council members; and the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The Office of the Executive Director coordinates federal environmental reviews and authorizations for projects that seek and qualify for FAST-41 coverage, which are in turn entitled to comprehensive permitting timetables and transparent, collaborative management of those timetables on the Federal Permitting Dashboard.
Learn more about the Permitting Council at permitting.gov.
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Last Updated: Friday, December 12, 2025