ASARCO began exploratory drilling for the Rock Creek Mine in 1979. ASARCO is responsible for over $1 billion in clean-up costs nationally, $62 million of which are in Montana. Twenty years later, ASARCO sold its interest in the project to Sterling Mining Company, which subsequently changed its name to Revett Minerals in 2003. Frank Duval was cofounder of Sterling and remained in top-level management with the company after the name change in 2003. Frank Duval also cofounded Pegasus Gold in 1974; this company was responsible for the Zortman-Landusky and Beal Mountain mines in Montana. Zortman-Landusky will require a minimum of $67 million to clean up and will also require perpetual water treatment for thousands of years. Project manager for Pegasus Gold’s Beal Mountain Mine was Revett’s current Vice-President of Operations, Carson Rife. Beal Mountain will cost $14.7 million of mostly taxpayer money to clean up and monitor. And they want to mine beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness?

The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s report that investigated the July 30, 2007 fatality at the Troy Mine concluded that Revett Minerals was guilty of “aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence.” The report went on to contend that the management at Revett Minerals engaged in an “unwarrantable failure to comply with a mandatory safety standard.” The miners themselves had expressed their concerns to management about the falling rock hazards at the mine, which the company failed to act on.

Fines totaling $517,000 were levied against Revett Minerals by the Mine Safety and Health Administration for not protecting its workers from rock fall hazards. Inspectors concluded, “Saving clean-up time was more important than safety.” The inspections that followed the fatality were in part prompted by whistleblowers at the mine that were concerned for the safety of themselves and their co-workers. MSHA had formed a partnership with Revett Minerals in 2006 to assist them with some of their safety issues, but when the company ignored the recommendations by the federal agency, the relationship was dissolved.

If Revett Minerals exhibits this degree of disregard for its employees at Troy, how much stewardship for the environment should be expected at Rock Creek?

Revett Minerals acknowledges that they do not have sufficient funds to construct and operate the Rock Creek Mine. The company is unsure if they even possess the capital to finance the initial phase—the evaluation or exploration stage of the mine. The Rock Creek Mine will require approximately $300 to $350 million to construct and operate.  Without adequate finances, it is questionable whether the required bonding for reclamation and clean-up will be adequately funded. Revett Minerals is speculating that an additional investor will fund the construction and operation of the full mine, but acknowledges that none is forthcoming at this time. The tenuous financial condition of the company in combination with falling mineral prices, a weak economy, plummeting stocks on Wall Street and the recent events at their mine operation at Troy, creates the very real possibility that the mine would be partially constructed and then abandoned. The mine’s abandonment would forgo any reclamation of the impacts of this project adjacent to the wilderness.

The Rock Creek Mine would dwarf Revett’s sister mine in Troy. The two mining operations at Rock Creek and Troy are vastly different in size, magnitude, and in their environmental impacts. Considering the significant issues Revett has had at the much smaller Troy mine, it is highly questionable whether the ability exists to manage the Rock Creek project and yet fulfill all of the fallacious promises that were made involving endangered species, clean water, and wilderness.

The Rock Creek Mine ore body sits beneath the lakes, streams, and creeks of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. The extraction of the ore would create massive underground rooms, leaving the once pristine ecosystem to be held up by pillars of rock left in place during the mining process. The million gallons of water would enter the mined-out cavity every day, forever. The water that would flow into the man-made chasm would come from either the wilderness lakes or the ground water that would normally recharge the lakes. Many of the lakes rely almost entirely on ground water to survive. Both the mining company and the permitting agencies recognize that the mine will impact the waters of the wilderness. They are also aware that once the blasting begins, the impacts will be irreversible.

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