Mining firm starts media blitz

The company that aims to start a copper and silver mine on the fringe of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness has gone on the offensive with a media campaign to counter years of high-profile criticism.

Revett Minerals paid for advertisements in the Inter Lake and other newspapers over the weekend, touting benefits for grizzly bears that will result from the Rock Creek Mine.

How can a mine help grizzly bears?

The advertisements aim to answer that question, taking aim at a mocking quote from one of the mines most vocal opponents, Mary Mitchell of the Rock Creek Alliance.

I mean, the companys at a point where theyre saying the mine is even going to help the grizzly bear, Mitchell was quoted as saying by the Bonner County Daily Bee.

Its true, the advertisement says, going on to describe a mitigation plan that involves $18 million in spending on conservation measures for the imperiled Cabinet Mountains grizzly bear population estimated at fewer than 15 bears.

Revett officers followed up by meeting with the editorial boards of the Inter Lake and other newspapers this week.

They explained that the company established a financing plan last February for reclamation of the Troy Mine, which Revett operates, along with exploratory drilling for the Rock Creek Mine at the southern end of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.

One of the things we decided that we lacked was going out and telling our story, said Bill Orchow, Revetts president and chief executive officer. Theres been a lot written about this over the years, primarily from the opposition.

And the opposition is extensive, including a laundry list of national, regional and local environmental groups. Two years ago, the mine was opposed by Tiffany and Co., the jewelry giant, in an open letter published in the Washington Post.

Now the Rock Creek mine is tangled up in ongoing permit issues and multiple lawsuits, but Orchow is hopeful those matters will soon be settled. Particularly, he said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to issue a revised biological opinion on the Rock Creek mine before years end. It will be the second revision for a document that serves as a guide for agencies that grant permits for the project: the U.S. Forest Service, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and its counterpart agency in Idaho.

The biological opinion for the project was remanded by a court order from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy earlier this year. While Revett already has been obliged to meet a number of costly requirements, the revised biological opinion could include more conditions.

The priority for Revett is to get the regulatory green light to proceed with an evaluation adit, basically exploratory drilling that would remove 150,000 tons of ore over an 18- to 24-month period. That would be followed by a feasibility study, leading to full-scale operation with a capital investment estimated at up to $200 million.

Orchow and Carson Rife, Revetts vice president of operations, contend the project is a sterling example of environmental compliance, with protections and benefits for water quality and grizzly bears.

For grizzly bear conservation, they stress that the projects developed area would involve only 115 acres of land, but for mitigation, Revett is being required to purchase and forever conserve 2,450 acres of bear habitat around the 94,000-acre wilderness area. The company also is required to fund the salaries of a state grizzly bear management specialist and a warden for 35 years.

There are plans to close roads, to provide bear-proof waste containers, to provide bear awareness training for mine employees, and to bus them to the work site to reduce potential conflicts with grizzly bears.

Rife said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will never be able to afford the same measures, which are estimated to cost $18 million.

Cesar Hernandez, a member of the Cabinet Resource Group and a longtime mine opponent, said Revett is understating the projects impacts on grizzly bears, and so far the companys commitment to bear conservation is all on paper.

Im kind of dubious of this, because they arent doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, Hernandez said. Theyre only doing it because the conservation community has been holding these agencies feet to the fire.

Hernandez noted that the mines footprint goes beyond 115 acres; it will include a tailings compound on 300 acres that is also arguably habitat used by bears and other wildlife.

Other mine opponents are doubt any mitigation benefits will make up for impacts on grizzly bears.

Mitigation habitat proposes only to provide protection of existing private habitat but does not replace habitat lost to bears within the ecosystem, Brian Peck of the Great Bear Foundation said in recent comments submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Counting employees, support personnel and their families, the Rock Creek mine could suddenly drop an additional 1,000 people into the middle of this imperiled [bear] population, Peck said, adding that any suggestion that the mine would not result in bear mortalities is little more than wishful thinking.

Orchow and Rife said it will cost Revett up to $15 million to build a required treatment plant for water discharged from mining operations. Revett maintains that water processed through the treatment plant will beat drinking water standards for nitrates, copper, zinc and silver.

And the mines estimated discharge of 3.3 million gallons per day will have no measurable impact downstream when it enters the Clark Fork River, largely because the ratio of discharge water to average river flows is 4,000-to-1.

Hernandez said the dilution solution is not reassuring. Again, he notes that Revett is building a treatment plant not because they are good guys; they were forced to do it.

Even with the treatment plant, he said, there are water-quality concerns that were raised last week in a Helena courtroom. District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock is hearing a case, with the Cabinet Resource Group among the plaintiffs challenging the Montana DEQs approval of the mine.

Orchow concedes that opposition to the mine has been bolstered over the years by its proximity to a wilderness area. Revett stresses that mining activity will be no closer than 450 feet below the surface of the wilderness, and it will be completely unnoticeable.

But Hernandez and others have raised the possibility for subsidence basically sink holes developing on the surface of the wilderness area, caused by mining activity far underground.

A recent sinkhole that developed on the surface above an excavated Troy Mine chamber was initially thought to be related to subsidence, but Orchow and Rife said a detailed analysis determined that was not the case.

They say the buffer zone between the surface and mining tunnels will be twice as thick at Rock Creek compared to the Troy Mine.

The mine is expected to provide up to 300 jobs, with an annual payroll of $18 million and an estimated overall impact of $37 million.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com