Montana’s Next Resourse Curse? The Proposed Montanore Mine
The jewelry community, with the encouragement from Earthworks, has focused heavily on the Pebble Bay mine in Alaska. However, Mine’s Management proposal for a silver and copper mine in NW Montana, 18 miles from Libby, would destroy another ecologically sensitive, pristine mountain and recreational area for forever.
An article in the Missoulan details the environmental destruction of this mine which would have a pre-tax income of over a billion dollars. Among the most damaging issue is the impact to critical waterways:
“Mines Management Inc. of Spokane, plan to use both the groundwater and the surface water – including numerous streams, springs, and alpine lakes – in these protected areas for processing the ore. These waterways would never fully recover, but after an estimated 1,172 years, according to the supplemental draft statement, the base flow of water in the area would reach a “steady state.”
According to the Earthworks Website, the mine would degrade the East Fork of the Bull River, the most important bull trout stronghold in the region, generate 13 million gallons a year of polluted mine water in perpetuity, and destroy 27,000 acres of grizzly bear habitat.
Montanore Mine acquired the rights to this environmental atrocity from another company, but ultimately it comes back to the 1872 mining law. This act which basically gives rights to mines away for free is a blatant form of corporate welfare. Unfortunately, there is little chance of changing this archaic law so long as Senator Harry Reid (D: Nevada) is majority leader in the senate. Reid is beholden to mining and gambling interests.
Recently the National Resource Defense Council NRDC has attempted to raise the profile of what is taking place in this section of Montana. They put out an appeal to write to the forest service about Montanore. Our concerns, again, are jewelry sourcing — much of this silver will end up being worn by people who have no idea that their ornamentation is destroying another pristine ecosystem.
We often consider the Resource Curse, as a phenomenon that effects mainly a developing country. Companies such as Mine Management and Anglo American prove that the US can be just as susceptible to this phenomena as Ghana.
TAKE ACTION NOW, supporting the NRDC’s recent campaign to highlight this issue.
