Save Hot Creek: A Foreign Company’s Mining Proposal Threatens One of California’s Premier Trout Streams

A proposed mining project by a Canadian company has renewed concerns over the future of California’s renowned Hot Creek fishery.

Locals have banded together to stop a mining project at Hot Creek, a beloved fly fishing and hiking destination in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains | Ethan Fichtner

A Canadian mining company’s search for gold could threaten California’s famed Hot Creek, the local mountain community’s economy, endangered species, and even Los Angeles’ water supply 330 miles downstream.

What is Hot Creek?

Hot Creek is one of California’s best-known fly-fishing destinations. Home to healthy populations of wild rainbow and brown trout, it is one of only three fisheries in Mono County open year-round. The creek is also home to the endangered Tui chub and even served as a filming location for a John Wayne movie. With spectacular scenery and easy public access, it has long been a favorite for fly fishing, hiking, and wildlife viewing.

Chris Leonard, a teacher and local fly fishing guide. Since starting the Mammoth High School Fly Fishing Club in 2006, he regularly takes students to Hot Creek, which is now under threat from a proposed mining project | Nicole Sands / Sierra Summit Photography

"It's a unique place, it's magical, there's no place really like it," says Chris Leonard, a fly fishing guide and local high school teacher, "because it's public land, it's never been developed. It needs to be preserved for multiple generations."

While the creek is mostly fed through the cold runoff, its name comes from the hot water that joins the creek as it flows past nearby geothermal springs. This hydrothermal activity that makes the gorge so unique also brings the source of the community's conflict: high concentrations of gold deposits.

The Fight to Preserve the Creek

In 2020, KORE Mining, a Canada-based company, submitted a notice of intent for exploratory drilling in the area. Plans published on the company’s website envisioned a 24-hour-a-day, year-round mining operation, including the use of cyanide products near  a historic fly fishing ranch.

After the project received approval from the U.S. Forest Service in 2021, the local community and environmental groups quickly mobilized in opposition.

Putting Up a Fight

One of the locals in the fight is Emily Markstein, a Mammoth Lakes resident who co-founded No Hot Creek Mine in response to the mining proposal announcement. "We saw a small blurb in the local paper and decided to have a protest. A couple of local folks that had organizing experience reached out to us and we formed No Hot Creek Mine."

Emily Markstein is a resident of Mammoth Lakes and co-founder of No Hot Creek Mine, a local group fighting to protect Hot Creek from foreign mining interests | Emily Markstein

Utilizing protections made possible by the National Envir­on­mental Policy Act (NEPA), No Hot Creek joined with locals and organizations like the Sierra Club and Trout Unlimited in filing a lawsuit, citing concerns about pollution and disruptions to threatened species.

Trying to Play the Loopholes

In 2024, a court ruled against KORE's proposal noting the company's actions in submitting two separate categorical exclusions (one for drilling and one for remediation) was an illegal attempt to bypass environmental regulations.

Trying Again

The victory was short lived, however, as the Trump Administration gutted protections enabled by NEPA, cutting nearly 80% of all regulations. Enabled by these cuts, KORE resubmitted their plans while skirting public and environmental safeguards, infuriating locals. "If it's public land, why is the public not allowed to protect these spaces?" Markstein asks.

"They have had no public comment period," Markstein explains. "Which means none of the local folks that live here, that work here, that recreate here, nobody's been able to make an official public comment, which is hugely problematic. When you have a public comment period, which was what happened last time, the public gets a chance to see what the mining company has proposed. The public has been totally left in the dark this time around."

A Cautionary Tale

The community's skepticism over the safety of a new mine is well founded. In 2014, the USFS found concerning levels of arsenic, lead, and mercury in nearby Mill City, leading to the seizure of recreational cabins and the closure of the area (which was recently extended in May 2026). The source of this contamination? A former gold processing facility in the 1870's.

“The government declared eminent domain and kicked the cabin owners off the land,” Leonard explained. He still wonders why the USFS would even consider a new mine. “There’s already been a history of bull shit with mining in the Eastern Sierra,” he said, explaining that contamination from more than a century ago remains. “Here they have an issue that hasn’t even been resolved.”

More Precious Than Gold

Now the natural beauty of the Eastern Sierras might be affected by mining once again and Markstein hopes this will unite many in the fight. "Something like Hot Creek that is so special to folks from all walks of life. People fish there, people hike there, there's indigenous land. Hot Creek is a place that everybody loves and that everybody can come together and protect."

Leonard affirms the sentiment. "I have friends on both sides of the political spectrum, that all agree. This is not an appropriate place to be mining for gold."

Mining operations in Hot Creek would threaten its fly fishing accessibility and wild trout population with open pits, pollution, and possibly cyanide contamination | Nicole Sands / Sierra Summit Photography

A Community at Risk

Now, not only is Hot Creek back at risk for exploratory drilling, a successful discovery of gold deposits would bring even greater concerns. The next phase would include open pit mining and the use of cyanide heap-leaching to process the gold ore into profit. Any contamination would be devastating to the fishery, which obviously does not sit well with Leonard, who has guided the waters for 17 years.

"It's important to preserve this for the literally thousands of people that fish it annually that bring millions and millions of dollars into the area, spending on restaurants, lodging, tackle, gear, everything." He continues, "KORE would destroy Hot Creek, take their money, and run. It would devastate the economy, it would pollute the waters with cyanide poisoning from the leaching, and the open pit mines would lead to air pollution with the wind events we have here."

"That's really what it boils down to, is the economic question. Do we want the economic benefit to go to KORE Mining to make money exclusively for itself, from extracting the gold, of which the community, tourists, and guests see none of it? Or do we want the economic activity from the fishing and tourism where people readily spend their money to appreciate the beauty of this area?"

Who Profits, Who Loses

While the profits generated by the gold mining are uncertain to trickle down to the locals, the threat of downstream contamination is a concern not just to small mountain towns, but the millions of residents in Los Angeles as well. "They're not going to want cyanide in Hot Creek," Leonard warns, "because Hot Creek flows into the Owens River, which flows into Crowley Lake, which flows into the California Aqueduct, where LA gets its water."

The Call For Action

Understandably frustrated, the people of the Eastern Sierras continue the fight to save the popular fishery of Hot Creek and will continue to protect their waters from foreign mining interests. When asked if KORE Mining has made any outreach or offered any economic investments to the local community, Markstein noted she was not aware of any. "KORE's office is in Vancouver. They don't think and they don't care about the impact that it's going to have on all of us down here" she said.

The local community feels a similar sentiment towards KORE. "The short answer is that they can kick rocks," Leonard put bluntly, "there's other places in the world they can extract gold, this is not the last gold deposit on earth. I'm not going to say gold is not of value, but this is the wrong place."

"People come up here because it's beautiful. People don't travel up here to see an open pit mine."

For more information on No Hot Creek Mine, follow them on Instagram for updates or visit their website.