WHO IS BEHIND I-147 AND WHO IS BANKROLLING THE PRO-I-147 CAMPAIGN GROUP?
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According to records of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, the primary sponsor and funder of the I-147 campaign is Canyon Resources, a Colorado mining company.
Canyon has a documented history in Montana as a polluter and a bad neighbor.
Canyon owns the Kendall Mine, an open-pit cyanide leach gold mine near Lewistown, Montana. Though the mine was closed eight years ago, the company has refused to completely reclaim the site.
The current ban on open-pit cyanide leach mining prevents Canyon and others from opening this type of mine elsewhere.
However, passage of I-147 would allow the company to build one of the nation's largest open-pit cyanide leach mines next to the Blackfoot River, upstream of Lincoln.
The open pit alone would be nearly the size of Butte's famous mining eyesore, the Berkeley Pit.
Section 2 of I-147 reinstates "contractual interests" and "mineral rights" supposedly affected by the 1998 ban on cyanide-leach mining. Canyon claims it had such "interests" and "rights," though lawyers at Montana's Dept. of Environmental Quality and the courts have told the company it is wrong.
Section 2 was written specifically to give Canyon Resources a special property right on Montana State land - your land -- enabling the company to proceed with its Blackfoot mine. |
Here's what news accounts and state and federal documents say about Canyon Resources, the company behind I-147 and the company that wants to mine the Blackfoot:
Canyon Resources, polluter.
- There were spills of cyanide solution in 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1995 at Canyon's Kendall Mine. In 1998, the State of Montana fined Canyon $300,000 for polluting downstream waters with cyanide, selenium, arsenic and thallium. Canyon said it couldn't afford to pay. In 2002, Canyon paid a reduced fine of $132,000. Only $13,000 was in cash.
- Montana's Dept. of Environmental Quality has determined that ongoing pollution at Canyon's Kendall mine is so severe it will require long-term water treatment. DEQ is currently using $500,000 of taxpayer money to develop a reclamation plan to deal with this pollution because Canyon has refused to do so itself.
- Though the Kendall Mine was closed in 1995, it has yet to be reclaimed -- even though Montana law requires mines be reclaimed within two years of closure. Canyon has repeatedly refused to increase its reclamation bond with the state to an amount that could cover cleanup and water treatment. According to the State, the cost could eventually be more than $14 million. Canyon has posted a bond of only $1.8 million. Taxpayers might have to make up the difference, as has been the case with other closed open-pit cyanide leach mines at Beal Mountain, near Anaconda, and at Zortman and Landusky near Lewistown.
- If I-147 had been in place damage at Kendall would still have occurred . That's because most of the so-called "new" requirements in I-147 were in place at Kendall.
Canyon Resources, bad neighbor.
- In 2000, the State of Montana issued a violation notice to Canyon for reducing the water sources of downstream ranchers. In October 2001, six families living downstream of the Kendall Mine sued Canyon for damages to their water supplies and private property.
- In July 2002, a nearly-broke Canyon Resources announced it would auction off mineral rights it has under about 1 million acres in Montana. Most of these rights are worthless. Nonetheless, according to news accounts, the company sent letters to 3,000 private property owners saying they had two weeks to pay the company $500 an acre for the mineral rights under their property. If the landowners didn't pay, Canyon said it would sell the rights to the highest bidder. Landowners responded to the "offer" with outrage and fear. According to news accounts, many landowners were confused and scared. State Sen. Jim Elliot of Trout Creek, told the press: "They're taking advantage by threatening people's security in their home and property, and I just find that abominable." Eventually few people paid Canyon.
Canyon Resources, financially unstable.
- According to Canyon's financial reports, since 1993 it has lost more than $73 million. Net earnings in the same period were less than $3 million. The company reported losing $5.7 million in the last quarter of 2003 alone.
- Though Canyon reports it loses money, refuses to fund its reclamation obligations at the Kendall Mine, and pleaded poverty when fined for causing pollution and drying up water sources of ranchers, its priority for the money it raised last winter in a stock sale is to put hundreds of thousands --and probably millions -- of dollars into the I-147 campaign.
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IMAGE CREDITS: "State fines gold mine $330,000," Great Falls Tribune, September 24, 1998; "We all pay for messy practices of mining," Billings Gazette opinion, December 7, 2000; Cartoon illustrating Kendall Mining Co. representative shooting rancher in the face with water pistol saying, "Just to show you our heart is in the right place, here's a little clean water for you and your herd," Lewistown News Argus, April 5, 1998; "Mine won't pay extra for cleanup," Great Falls Tribune, October 6, 1999. |
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Save the Blackfoot. Vote NO on I-147. - Paul Roos, treasurer - P.O. Box 68, Ovando, MT 59854 - info@nocyanide.org |
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