Here in Montana, we want to preserve our precious Smith River, but it’s not the only Smith threatened by mining.
Over in the Kalmiopsis region of southwestern Oregon, the headwaters of the Smith River that flows through northern California are threatened by proposed nickel strip mines. The mining companies are seeking permits from the U.S. Forest Service, which just closed public comment on an environmental assessment on May 27.
People like to complain about government mismanagement of money, but a recent report has found that mining companies tend to be terrible at staying within budget. That means companies like Tintina Resources end up having little or no money left for cleanup.
Many avid Smith River floaters know of the threat posed by the proposed Black Butte copper mine, but there are still a few who don’t have a clue. So Montana Trout Unlimited member Ezra Ginzberg has taken on the role of teacher.
The struggle over who pays for the reclamation of a Lewistown-area mine has moved into the courts.
The CR Kendall Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection in November, but it has yet to finish restoration work on the CR Kendall Mine north of Lewistown in the North Moccasin Mountains. So last week, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality asked the court not to let the company out of an obligation to pay $6.2 million for the remainder of the mine reclamation.
Although the archaic 1872 Mining Act allows U.S. mining companies to get away with a lot, Canada’s laws are even worse when it comes to holding mining companies accountable. Tintina Resources is based in Canada. Not only that, but it’s based in British Columbia where an auditor general recently issued a report that slammed British Columbia’s mines monitoring and inspection program.
For “Throwback Thursday” – a social-media thing where people post about things in the past – Tintina Resources posted a photo of a Montana historic-point sign informing travelers about the Smith River Valley. Tintina Resources loved that the sign says the Smith River Valley contained the “richest acre of ground in the world” if you were one of the 1960s gold-placer crowd.
While the claim is debatable – no source is given for the quote and the world is a pretty big place – the Smith River Valley does still contain a rich acre. That would be Camp Baker, where each year about 5,500 river lovers gather over the course of about seven months to launch on their own adventures of the Smith River.