SPOKANE, Wash. -- A Montana initiative that bars the use of cyanide to process gold has taken center stage at the Northwest Mining Association's convention.
In opening remarks to the industry group's 104th annual meeting Tuesday, Montana Lt. Gov. Judy Martz said Gov. Marc Racicot and other Montana officials want to overturn the law that shocked the mining-friendly state.Initiative 137, approved Nov. 3 by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent, banned the use of the cyanide heap leach process at new and expanding mines in Montana. The process uses diluted cyanide to remove microscopic flecks of gold from pulverized ore.
"I-137 was an effort focused directly at gold mining," said Martz, whose father was a Butte, Mont., miner. "Although cyanide, because of its applications and failings in the past, may provoke feelings of fear or anxiety for many people, I believe ... that Montana has proper and appropriate safeguards in place to continue to protect human health and the environment with the use of cyanide."
Earlier, she told reporters that state officials had no documentation of fish kills from as many as 60 cyanide leaks since the early 1980s. She said the fact that no humans have been harmed by those spills is a positive development.
Laura Skaer, mining association executive director, said the industry wants to use its annual meeting to push its message that environmental protection is its highest priority.
"Look at the areas where pollution is the worst. Poverty is the worst polluter," she said. "The mining industry creates wealth."
But a panel of environmental activists disputed industry claims that mining is good for the environment.
"What happened in Montana sends a real message to the mining industry: that the public expects more," said Dave Kliegman of the Okanogan Highlands Alliance.
While voters in Montana have barred the use of heap leach cyanide at gold mines, Washington state officials are pondering approval of a large-scale open pit gold mine in northern Okanogan County that would use the heap leach method, he said.
Kliegman and Aimee Boulanger of the Mineral Policy Center, a national group advocating reform of the Mining Act of 1872, called for new laws requiring mining companies to use the best available forms of technology.
Michelle Nanni of the Lands Council, a Spokane-based conservation organization, called the industry's threats to take away jobs from communities that object to mining contamination "environmental blackmail."
The industry claims to be friendly to the environment, yet continually fights efforts to clean up northern Idaho's Silver Valley and the Coeur d'Alene River system, she said.
Mineral contamination from the mines has spread through Lake Coeur d'Alene to the Spokane River, which flows through northeastern Washington into the Columbia River, she said.
Martz filled in for Racicot, who was scheduled to deliver the opening address but was traveling in the Middle East with Texas Gov. George W. Bush and other Republican governors.
Racicot sent a brief videotape assuring miners that his state does not take their industry for granted.