Cyanide Controversy Takes Center Stage Mining Industry Will Be Watching Montana

Montana has a proud tradition of mining, and Gov. Marc Racicot wants it to continue - despite an initiative that would outlaw cyanide use in new open pit mines, Racicot’s lieutenant governor said.

“We believe that cyanide has not hurt anyone,” Lt. Gov. Judy Martz told delegates at the Northwest Mining Association’s annual meeting Tuesday.

Cyanide use in modern mining has to be judged on science, not emotion, she said.

“I think when anyone outside of the mining industry hears of cyanide leaks, they think of a leak as large as a lake,” she said.

State lawmakers are already preparing legislation that would repeal Initiative 137, which passed in November with 53 percent approval.

Martz stopped short of saying that Racicot would endorse a repeal. Legislatures are often reluctant to overturn voter-approved initiatives, she noted.

But the issue will be given careful consideration, she said.

Mining means jobs to Montana, and cyanide is the most efficient and economical way to extract gold from low-grade deposits, said Martz, the daughter of a Butte miner.

Martz was the keynote speaker at the Northwest Mining Association’s 104th annual meeting - a weeklong event at the Spokane Convention Center attended by more than 3,000 people from 17 countries. The Montana initiative has drawn widespread interest in the mining industry, because of its possible trendsetting nature.

Cyanide allows companies to recover fractions of an ounce of gold from tons of crushed rock. The technology was first used on a large scale about two decades ago at the Zortman-Landusky mine in Montana.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, convened their own press conference to denounce cyanide use. The practice has left a legacy of groundwater contamination across the West, they said, noting that Montana is currently fighting with bankrupt Pegasus Gold Inc. over a cleanup budget for the Zortman-Landusky mine.

Ironically, Washington is preparing to permit its first large open-pit gold mine on the heels of Montana’s vote, said Aimee Boulanger, of the Mineral Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Battle Mountain Gold Co. hopes to begin construction next year on a gold mine in Okanogan County.

The mine would use a cyanide solution to extract 1.45 million tons of gold from ore.

“It would use 2,000 gallons of water for every ounce of gold extracted,” said David Kliegman of the Okanogan Highlands Alliance, a group fighting the mine.

The Northwest Mining Association adopted a set of principles Tuesday emphasizing environmental protection and regulatory compliance.

Mining has come a long way in the past century, said Laura Skaer, the association’s executive director.

“Dirty pictures” of abandoned mines and chemical streams don’t represent current industry practices, she said.

But the industry still has a long way to go, environmentalists argued.

Asarco Inc. has proposed what would be North America’s largest copper and silver mine on the Idaho-Montana border. It would discharge three million gallons of wastewater laced with aluminum and nitrogen daily into the Clark Fork River, which flows into Lake Pend Orielle, said Sandpoint resident Diane Williams, who wants the company to be held accountable for past actions.

The company already has 21 Superfund sites, she said.