What do Cyanide leach mining, dredges, and hydraulic mining have in common? Ecological, social, political, and economic destruction. First consider the most dramatic, hydraulic mining. Here's how it works.

Water is captured at an elevation above the site to be blasted. It is piped downward, picking up four tenths of a pound of pressure for every foot of drop. For example, if the water drops 1000 feet, it would have about 400 pounds of pressure per square inch. In comparison the Bozeman fire hydrants carry about 90 pounds of pressure.

The water is run through a nozzle and aimed at the river banks. The force of the water cuts the banks and washes material in to the river. Using this technique, miners can cheaply move vast amounts of overburden.

This was a common technique around 1900. "Around the turn of the century all rivers in Northern California were filling up with silt. This silt was caused by the extensive hydraulic mining...up and down the Sierra Nevada range". The final step was to float a gold dredge in the river and extract the gold. Some dredges would cut a 90 foot wide channel 90 feet deep.

While abhorring the ecological damage, I admire the men and their technology. And we should understand, if not appreciate, its historical context.

By today's standards, America was a third world country when hydraulic miners plied their craft. Even today, Tiger International Resources operating in Myanmar (formerly Burma) "is pleased to report...on the Company's ....panning, sluicing and hydraulic mining".

As a rule, poor people willingly trade off environmental quality to capture income. Like foreign travel, gourmet foods, and BMWs, environmental concern increases with income and education. While there are exceptions which probe the rule, this is generally true across time and cultures.

There has been no significant hydraulic mining in Montana for about 100 years. However, the mentality underlying the process lives on in our legislature as it considers overturning Initiative 137 which banned cyanide mining. This contemplation is a political artifact of the third world political culture which marked our early statehood.

The Eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, my favorite, was published in 1911. Its authors well understood the economics of mining. In its section subtitled "Mine Administration", they stated:

"In organizing a mining company it must be recognized that mining is of necessity a temporary business. When the deposit is exhausted the company must be wound up or its operations transferred to some other locality....The vast majority of mineral deposits are unworkable, and of those that are developed a large portion prove unprofitable". Those truths remain in force today. The legislature may ignore, but can't overturn them.

Profitability depends on both prices and technology. After Montana's rich gold deposits were exhausted, the technology of cyanide-leach heaping came on line. This process extracts gold by grinding up mountains and spraying a cyanide solution on the heaped remains. The obvious results are as dramatic as those of hydraulic mining. Windshield data is evident as we drive I 90 past the Golden Sunlight mine near Whitehall.

Cyanide leaching may be as damaging, and is surely more insidious, than mining of olden times. Why? Because cyanide often leaks and contaminates ground water. For example, in 1983 19,000,000 gallons of cyanide solution leaked from the Golden Sunlight mine into ground water. Somewhat over 135,000,000 gallons have escaped into Montana's waters in the past 20 years.

These spillovers (or unders) harm wildlife, human health, and the property rights of neighbors. This is why voters last November passed Initiative 137 to stop this harmful technology.

Several of our legislators, however, disagree. Senator Grosfield, a Republican of Big Timber said: "Just because the people said this is what they wanted that does not make it right". Politicians who hold such views may do well in Third World countries. But here? Now? Only for the short run.

Hydraulic mining did monumental damage tearing up the West's riparian zones and depositing billions of tons of sediment in the rivers. Likewise, should Grosfield et. al. succeed, they will further erode our faith in the democratic process. To achieve short term economic advantage, they ignore both the property rights of those harmed and environmental quality. Their success would exemplify government operating as an engine of plunder.

Montana is no longer a colonial economy. Our education, income, and sensitivities have increased. Republicans, of all people, should recognize that wealth, education, and environmental sensitivity increase together. Those who don't deserve what they'll get.

In the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, March 17, 1999.

Environmental Sensitivity and Wealth Go Hand in Hand

By John A. Baden, Ph.D.

What do Cyanide leach mining, dredges, and hydraulic mining have in

common?

Ecological, social, political, and economic destruction. First consider

the most dramatic, hydraulic mining. Here's how it works.

Water is captured at an elevation above the site to be blasted. It is

piped downward, picking up four tenths of a pound of pressure for every

foot of drop. For example, if the water drops 1000 feet, it would have

about 400 pounds of pressure per square inch. In comparison the Bozeman

fire hydrants carry about 90 pounds of pressure.

The water is run through a nozzle and aimed at the river banks. The

force

of the water cuts the banks and washes material in to the river. Using

this

technique, miners can cheaply move vast amounts of overburden.

This was a common technique around 1900. "Around the turn of the century

all rivers in Northern California were filling up with silt. This silt

was

caused by the extensive hydraulic mining...up and down the Sierra Nevada

range". The final step was to float a gold dredge in the river and

extract

the gold. Some dredges would cut a 90 foot wide channel 90 feet deep.

While abhorring the ecological damage, I admire the men and their

technology. And we should understand, if not appreciate, its historical

context.

By today's standards, America was a third world country when hydraulic

miners plied their craft. Even today, Tiger International Resources

operating in Myanmar (formerly Burma) "is pleased to report...on the

Company's ....panning, sluicing and hydraulic mining".

As a rule, poor people willingly trade off environmental quality to

capture

income. Like foreign travel, gourmet foods, and BMWs, environmental

concern increases with income and education. While there are exceptions

which

probe the rule, this is generally true across time and cultures.

There has been no significant hydraulic mining in Montana for about 100

years.

However, the mentality underlying the process lives on in our legislature

as it considers overturning Initiative 137 which banned cyanide mining.

This contemplation is a political artifact of the third world political

culture which marked our early statehood.

The Eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, my favorite, was

published in 1911. Its authors well understood the economics of mining.

In its section subtitled "Mine Administration", they stated:

"In organizing a mining company it must be recognized that mining is of

necessity a temporary business. When the deposit is exhausted the

company

must be wound up or its operations transferred to some other

locality....The vast majority of mineral deposits are unworkable, and of

those that are developed a large portion prove unprofitable". Those

truths

remain in force today. The legislature may ignore, but can't overturn

them.

Profitability depends on both prices and technology. After Montana's

rich

gold deposits were exhausted, the technology of cyanide-leach heaping

came

on line. This process extracts gold by grinding up mountains and

spraying

a cyanide solution on the heaped remains. The obvious results are as

dramatic as those of hydraulic mining. Windshield data is evident as we

drive I 90 past the Golden Sunlight mine near Whitehall.

Cyanide leaching may be as damaging, and is surely more insidious, than

mining of olden times. Why? Because cyanide often leaks and

contaminates

ground water. For example, in 1983 19,000,000 gallons of cyanide

solution

leaked from the Golden Sunlight mine into ground water. Somewhat over

135,000,000 gallons have escaped into Montana's waters in the past 20

years.

These spillovers (or unders) harm wildlife, human health, and the

property

rights of neighbors. This is why voters last November passed Initiative

137 to stop this harmful technology.

Several of our legislators, however, disagree. Senator Grosfield, a

Republican of Big Timber said: "Just because the people said this is what

they wanted that does not make it right". Politicians who hold such

views

may do well in Third World countries. But here? Now? Only for the short

run.

Hydraulic mining did monumental damage tearing up the West's riparian

zones

and depositing billions of tons of sediment in the rivers. Likewise,

should Grosfield et. al. succeed, they will further erode our faith in

the

democratic process. To achieve short term economic advantage, they

ignore

both the property rights of those harmed and environmental quality.

Their

success would exemplify government operating as an engine of plunder.

Montana is no longer a colonial economy. Our education, income, and

sensitivities have increased. Republicans, of all people, should

recognize that wealth, education, and environmental sensitivity increase

together. Those who don't deserve what they'll get.

John A. Baden, Ph.D. (e-mail: jbaden@free-eco.org) is chairman of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) and Gallatin Writers, Inc., 945 Technology Blvd., Suite 101F, Bozeman, MT 59718.

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