Cyanide ban lands in top court

[Feanorcurufinwe]

The long-brewing legal battle over a 1998 voter-passed ban on cyanide leach mining in Montana shifts to the state Supreme Court on Tuesday as lawyers square off in oral arguments.

Lawyers for Canyon Resources Corp., the Colorado company that wanted to develop a large cyanide heap leach gold mine near Lincoln, are expected to ask the justices to either suspend the ban for the Lincoln project or reimburse the company up to $500 million for what they say the mine would be worth if the ban hadn't passed.

Lawyers for the state, in contrast, are expected to stress the rationale of Helena District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock, who threw out the case almost a year ago saying the mining company lost nothing when the ban passed because it didn't have a permit to mine.

At issue is Initiative 137, which passed by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin in November 1998. The initiative banned the use of cyanide leaching at future mines in Montana. When the initiative passed, Canyon Resources was in the process of trying to get a permit to construct a large cyanide leach gold and silver mine called the Seven-Up Pete Joint Venture near Lincoln. At the time, however, the project did not have a permit to mine and wasn't in operation.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/10/28/news/mtregional/news08.txt