Montanore Mine faces setback after judge's ruling

Hecla Mining Company’s plans to expand an existing underground copper and silver mine south of Libby hit a roadblock Tuesday when a U.S. District Judge overturned the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of the project — a project Hecla estimates could eventually create 450 jobs.

A Hecla official said the company was “disappointed but not deterred with the court’s ruling,” while opponents were pleased it supported their concerns about the proposed mine’s potential environmental impact.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula ruled the Forest Service violated the Clean Water Act, the Forest Service Organic Act of 1897, the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it approved Hecla’s Montanore mine project in February 2016.

Molloy’s ruling was in response to a suit filed by conservation groups including Save Our Cabinets, Earthworks and the Clark Fork Coalition. They contend the mining project as planned would potentially harm populations of both bull trout and grizzly bears, two species the Environmental Protection Agency considers endangered.

“We will review the ruling and then sit down with the agencies to see how we can address those findings,” said Luke Russell, Hecla vice president of external affairs. “We know that Montanore can be developed in a responsible way and the first step there is to pursue the evaluation phase and so we’ll be working with the agencies to address the court’s findings to move the project forward in a responsible manner.”

The evaluation phase Russell referred to is the first of four planned mine development phases. Expected to last two years, the evaluation phase would be followed by construction (three years), operations (16 to 20 years), and closure and post-closure (up to 20 years).

“We’ve always said that Clark Fork Coalition is not against mining,” said Karen Knudsen, coalition director, via email. “We’re for clean water. Which means we are against mining pollution.”

Knudsen, and Mary Costello of Save the Cabinets, referred to the Forest Service’s own environmental impact statement that predicted mining operations would decrease flows in certain mountain streams.

Costello also stated via email that her group “is not opposed to all mining, but we are opposed to mining beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness” because it “is incompatible with the designation of the wilderness.”

Court documents state that the ore Hecla is after lies beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area, while mining access points and surface facilities would be located outside the area’s boundary.

That Molloy’s decision might delay or prevent the eventual creation of 450 jobs left Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-Libby) “heartbroken.”

“This was our last stance,” Gunderson said in a Thursday morning phone interview. “The environmentalists drove a stake through our heart.”

Gunderson, who is also spokesperson for the Montanore Positive Action Committee, referred to the citizen group’s seven or eight year’s of effort on behalf of the mine. He spoke of the mining industry’s ability to provide the “historical jobs” that, along with logging, “built Montana.” He said jobs such as those promised by the Montanore mine could lure back to the area residents forced to move elsewhere for work.

“We don’t have a broad base that gives us good family-wage jobs,” he said.

Bruce Vincent, who with his son Sen. Chas Vincent (R-Libby) has consulted with Hecla through their company Environomics, shared Russell’s forward-looking view.

“We’ve got to focus on now getting the agencies working as quickly as they can on correcting the deficiencies the judge pointed out,” he said.