MINER DETAILS (April 27, 1992)

CBC’s recent television “expos” of the New World project near Yellowstone Park, Mont., was predictable, biased and full of weary stereotypes that badly need to be challenged. Worse than that, it was a grave injustice to a progressive junior company that found and developed the project, Crown Butte Mines.

The story didn’t focus much on Crown Butte, probably because it was more tempting to put the black hat on Noranda — portrayed as a greedy, foreign corporation out to pollute the entire Yellowstone ecosystem on a mad quest for gold — than on a small Montana company headed by a Montana resident. Crown Butte has plenty of supporters and shareholders in Montana, which CBC’s fifth estate chose to portray as grizzly bear-shooting rednecks hanging out in bars.

Flippantly dismissed as a pawn of big business was “People for the West,” a grassroots coalition of miners, ranchers, loggers and wise-use groups who have joined forces to fight environmental extremism and argue that land can be used wisely for human benefit without destroying nature.

Crown Butte President David Rovig is well known in mining circles and in a few towns in Montana, but he was shocked to find himself portrayed as having enough clout to pull strings in the White House. If life was that easy, Rovig wouldn’t still be on the permitting treadmill, patiently tabling the third set of studies which he hopes will ultimately lead to operating permits. Mining at New World dates back to 1870. During the last 120 years, various groups mined gold and other metals from the old sites, but they all missed the underground deposits discovered by Crown Butte before Noranda became its largest shareholder.

Those pioneer operators didn’t pay much attention to the environment. Crown Butte and Noranda want to show that times have changed. A technical team is in place which recognizes the sensitivity of the area, and which seeks to use the latest technology and practices to “meet or beat” all environmental guidelines and requirements — before, during and after mining. That was the Crown Butte I saw during a property visit last year. It was eager to talk about its reclamation plan designed to enhance the site after mining, as well as previously mined areas.

And the company was proud of its test plots which showed that by using native plant species, it will be feasible to reclaim an alpine region that is every bit as spectacular as its mineral deposits.