Montana issues rape permit to another foreign miner

Skeletons of mining in a past era fall down at an abandoned site in Comet, Montana.

The US Forest Service is often powerless to stop the extractive industry from permanently altering sensitive habitat because of the General Mining Law of 1872. Much to the frustration of locals, the US Environmental Protection Agency moved most of the contaminated soil from above Rimini, Montana to a mine in upper Basin Creek where it was encapsulated.

Not far away Barrick operates the Golden Sunlight Mine near Whitehall, home to another open pit. Effluent from that mine goes into the Jefferson River also a tributary of the Missouri and much of it lies in repose within Canyon Ferry Reservoir. Repeal or even reform of the 1872 statute has been thwarted repeatedly by the earth hating Republican Party.

Clancy Creek, a tributary to Prickly Pear Creek, used to be a fine little Westslope cutthroat trout stream between Butte and Helena. About 1,000 feet of it is now confined to a 16-inch plastic pipe, precariously perched on the edge of an open pit left behind by the defunct Montana Tunnels Mine near Jefferson City. [Missoula Current]

So, lemme get this straight: if allowed to do so by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality an Australian company would disembowel roughly 440 tons (400 million metric tons) of copper-rich concentrate every day for fifteen years from private property in an endangered Montana watershed, load it onto rail cars then ship it outside the US?

Conservationists, sporting groups and environmental advocates have campaigned to shut down the project, concerned that it will harm the Smith River, a blue-ribbon fishery that is so popular the state holds an annual lottery for permits to float the river. The DEQ's permit also requires Tintina to store water that comes into contact with acid-producing minerals in a double-lined, cemented tailings facility, to backfill mined areas with a mix of tailings and cement as work is completed and to seal mine tunnels and entryways to prevent groundwater flows across acid-producing minerals. The state will set and review bonding requirements to ensure it has enough money to remediate the mine if Tintina fails to do so. Bonding amounts will be set within 40 days. [Helena Independent-Record]

Further litigation is likely.

Record of Decision here.