"I-147 Bad for Hunters and All Montanans!"

Dear Email Sentry:

The following is a fairly in-depth look at I-147, an Initiative bankrolled by mining companies to return cyanide heap-leach mining to Montana. Please read through it. There's some indications in the polls that I-147 is starting to gain some support. Hunters and anglers strongly supported passage of I-137, which was the forerunner to and opposite of I-147; it outlawed cyanide heap leach mining...so it is incumbent on sportsmen to defend that decision.

Hunters and anglers can help by writing letters to their local news editors and then vote against I-147 in the polls. Thank you for defending Montana's wildlife and wildlife habitat!!

On November 2, 2004, general election day, you will vote to either keep a prohibition of any new open-pit cyanide-heap leach mining in Montana or overturn the voter-approved prohibition and reinstate cyanide leach
mining. Because hunters, anglers and other conservationists supported the prohibition, because the use of cyanide poisons rivers and degrades the places we fish and hunt and our public lands, the board of Montana Wildlife Federation believes our members should understand the issues at hand, and should have the needed facts to make an informed decision regarding the pro-cyanide mining initiative, I-147.

What is I-147?

In 1998, Montana voters approved initiative I-137, to prohibit cyanide-leach processing at open-pit gold and silver mines, except for mines already in operation. The ban only affected new proposals or expanded open-pit cyanide-leach mining after 1998; it does not prohibit other types of mining such as milling.

A Colorado-based mining company, Canyon Resource Co., has been fighting the ban in court since its approval. Canyon is the company that prior to the ban had hoped to build Montana's largest open-pit cyanide leach mines near the headwaters of the Blackfoot River known as the 7 Up Pete/McDonald Gold Project. They would still like to develop this project. Canyon is also financing this "initiative" campaign; according to reports $2.2 million was invested in promoting I-147, around 98 percent of the campaign, $2.16 million, came from Canyon Resources, SURPRISE, SURPRISE.

This new mining company bankrolled initiative I-147, which would effectively reverse the will of the people who approved the ban and again allow open-pit cyanide leaching for gold and silver. Although it is not clearly stated on the ballot or in the state voter pamphlet, approval of I-147 asserts a special property right to automatically restore any contractual mineral interests companies had prior to the voters' prohibition. So, this is simply Canyon's attempt to get its state lands mineral leases back for the Blackfoot mine.

What are Problems with I-147?

A Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) chief mine regulator and the agency director have stated, that the regulations in the proposed ballot measure are things the state has required in the past at major cyanide heap-leach mines (including the Kendall/Canyon Resource mine)...all safeguards required in the proposed initiative were available when cyanide leach mining was legal.

The technology has not changed! Yet, cyanide mining proponents tell us "new" safeguards are built into I-147. They also say that "new" bonding requirements will alleviate clean-up problems and ensure that industry, not taxpayers, pay for cleanup and reclamation. The truth is that there are NO new requirements in I-147. In fact, all of the safeguards were available, and used, at every mine in Montana, the same mines that continue to pollute our water and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

For the most part, the track-record says otherwise. In 1998, the State of Montana fined Canyon $300,000 for polluting waters downstream from Kendall mine with cyanide, selenium, arsenic and thallium. In 2003, Canyon paid only $132,000, said it could pay no more, and continues to pollute surface and ground water. The State of Montana is now spending $500,000 of taxpayer dollars this year to develop a reclamation plan for the Kendall/Canyon Resource mine because Canyon won't do it. This is the company that says I-147 will lead to more responsible mining cleanup. And what about companies that go bankrupt, as many of them have in Montana, who will clean up their mess?

Newspaper and television advertising is trying to convince voters to vote for I-147 because they want to bring mining jobs back to Montana. According to the University of Montana's Bureau of Business and Economic
research, however, there are more mining jobs in Montana today than before the 1998 cyanide ban.

What is Open-Pit Cyanide Leaching?

Simply put, ore is extracted from huge open pits. The ore is placed in massive heaps in a pit that is first covered with a plastic liner. The plastic is intended to prevent any of the dangerous liquid from seeping out of the containment area into the earth, surface water and groundwater. Liquid cyanide is sprinkled over the ore heap, thus comes the name heap-leach mining. The cyanide trickles or percolates through the heap and dissolves microscopic particles of gold and silver. This solution is then collected at the bottom of the heap. Gold and silver is then separated from the solution and the cyanide is re-circulated back to the heap. Some mines use giant vats, rather than heaps, for the extraction process. Regardless, the spent ore is left in heaps or impoundments where cyanide and other pollutants continue to leach out of it.

What are the Problems with the Cyanide Leaching Process?

The most widely recognized problem is leakage of the cyanide solution at the leach pads, the tailings impoundments and waste rock dumps. These facilities have double, and in some cases triple, liners...but they still
leak. Opponents to the process have compared this with putting rocks and liquid into a garbage bag. What are the odds that the rocks, ore, won't puncture the liner causing leakage of the solution? What about weak points
in the liner or was the liner applied correctly? What about rain leaching cyanide and other pollutants from tailings? The answers to all of these questions are not very good - every mine in Montana using cyanide has recorded cyanide leakage and other pollutants into our surface and ground water.

Montana hunters and anglers recognize water as one of our most valuable long-term resources. According to DEQ records, all five of the currently permitted open-pit, cyanide-leach mines in Montana have water quality
problems they have been unable to prevent. Irresponsible mining companies or bankrupt companies have also left Montanans holding the bag. The State of Montana currently faces potential reclamation and water clean-up
liabilities of approximately $40 million, combined, at the Beal Mountain, Zortman-Landusky, and Canyon Resource owned Kendall mine near Lewistown...all cyanide heap-leach operations. The Beal Mountain mine, leaking cyanide solution into ground and surface waters within the first year of operation has poisoned downstream trout, is now in the federal Superfund program and being cleaned up with our tax dollars.

Lining and containment systems haven't prevented a single leach facility from leaking cyanide solution and other pollutants into groundwater. In 2001, six ranching families living downstream from the Kendall mine sued Canyon Resources for polluting and interrupting water sources needed for watering livestock and crops. The BLM has been sued by the Fort Belknap tribe for allowing the Zortman-Landusky mines to damage tribal lands. A DEQ mining regulator speaking to the Helena Independent Record said that water treatment (at the Landusky cyanide mine) will have to go on for hundreds of years, possibly forever. Contaminated drinking water resulting from a cyanide spill at the Golden Sunlight mine forced neighboring landowners to sell their land to the mine owner - they simply could not live there any longer. The now closed Kendall mine looks like a moonscape of dead vegetation, lifeless off colored cyan, green and yellow soil and putrid, lifeless contaminated ponds.

Vote AGAINST I-147!

Hunters and anglers have invested in our landscapes, our wildlife and fisheries. We must protect these investments. We must also be partners with landowners who don't want this kind of mining forced
upon them - in their backyards. We must not allow the Blackfoot River and our state lands to be polluted by cyanide.

Thank You for Stepping Up for Montana's Wildlife and Hunting/Fishing Heritage.

Larry Copenhaver
Conservation Director
Montana Wildlife Federation
Web-site: montanawildlife.com
[406]458-0227
[800]517-7256

This message is brought to you by the Montana Wildlife Federation ... Montana's largest, statewide wildlife conservation organization with over 7,000 members.