Cyanide ban repeal on ballot

By BOB ANEZ - Associated Press Writer - 07/15/04

HELENA — A proposal to repeal a 6-year-old ban on using cyanide in new gold and silver mines has qualified for the November ballot, the secretary of state's office said Wednesday.

The office verified the petition signatures of 21,166 voters and said the initiative qualified in 39 of Montana's 56 counties. To get on the ballot, the measure needed a minimum of 20,510 signatures representing at least 5 percent of those voted for governor in the 2000 election, from each of at least 28 counties.

Initiative 147 was one of four citizen-authored proposals vying for a spot on the general election ballot. State election officials are still reviewing petition signatures for measures that would create a constitutional ban on gay marriage, more than double taxes on tobacco products and legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

Officials face a Friday deadline for determining if the initiatives qualify.

I-147 would overturn a cyanide ban approved by 52 percent of voters in 1998. The mining industry has long argued it never had a fair chance to fight that initiative because another law, overturned shortly before the election, prevented corporations from spending money to support or oppose ballot measures.

The ban halted plans by a Colorado-based company, Canyon Resources Corp., to develop a large open-pit gold mine near Lincoln that opponents said threatened the Blackfoot River.

The 2003 Legislature considered a bill for a ballot measure to repeal the ban, but dropped the idea amid criticism that it was second-guessing voters.

Canyon Resources so far has single-handedly financed the group pushing I-147.

Angie Janacaro, executive director of the Montana Mining Association, said the ease with which I-147 got on the ballot is a good sign.

‘‘It's just proof that what Montanans want is good jobs, a safe environment and that they feel confident, with the language that is in the ballot measure, we can do both,'' she said.

Although the initiative allows cyanide use only with certain restrictions, critics have said the requirements already are applied to mining projects and have not prevented cyanide contamination problems.

Janacaro said backers of I-147 will rebut environmentalists' claims that cyanide mining operations are a bad idea. ‘‘We have proof we are not out there doing bad things. We are supporting our families, protecting the environment and working hard.''

Jim Jensen, executive director for the Montana Environmental Information Center, predicted the initiative will fail and the ban will be sustained.

‘‘This simply gives Montanans an opportunity to say no one more time to a method of mining that poisons our water, threatens private property and puts taxpayers on the hook to clean up the mess,'' he said.

 

‘‘It's just proof that what Montanans want is good jobs, a safe environment and that they feel confident, with the language that is in the ballot measure, we can do both,'' she said.  

Dieses betrifft Canyon Resources und nicht Gold Reserve (Brisas = Venezuela!)  

Mining company major contributor to I-147

By JENNIFER McKEE - IR State Bureau - 7/16/04

HELENA — An out-of-state mining company that is suing the state over Montana's 1998 ban on cyanide leach mining continues to be the major benefactor behind an effort to repeal the ban this fall.

Canyon Resources Corp., of Golden, Colo., has given more than $737,000 of the almost $764,000 total war chest for the backers of Initiative 147. That's 97 percent of all the money and services the I-147 committee has raised.

Canyon Resources, which according to its last financial report, lost $5.7 million in the first three months of this year, gave $185,676 to the committee in the last month, information from the state's commissioner of political practices office shows. The committee raised a total of $191,412 cash and in-kind donations.

The I-147 committee is called Miners, Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity, for I-147.

I-147 would repeal 1998's Initiative 137, which banned cyanide leach processing in gold and silver mining. The technique involves trickling a cyanide solution over ore piles to extract precious metals diffused in large amounts of rock. I-147 would also mandate certain environmental protections that were available before I-137 passed, but not required by law.

Canyon Resources had hoped to build a large, cyanide leach mine near Lincoln when voters banned the practice in 1998. The company has been fighting the ban for years.

Some of Canyon's money and donations in the last month went to pay people who gathered the necessary signatures to place I-147 on the ballot.