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FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS







3     
NORANDA GOLD MINE THREATENS YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK





Yellowstone Park, the World's first-ever national park when established in 1876, is now a World Heritage Park, as well.  A Canadian Mining Company, Noranda, is using the antiquated, give-our-resources-away-to-anybody mining policy (established by the inadequate Mining Law of 1872) to propose a gold mine operation just outside of the Park's northeast corner.  Noranda figures to mine $600,000,000 of gold, silver, and copper; and per the 1872 Mining Law, Noranda will not even have to pay even one cent of royalties to the debt-ridden U.S. government.


This mining operation would seriously jeopardize the Park by opening large areas of sulphide-containing bedrock to the high-country air and water environments. The resultant acidic run-off would not only poison pristine surface waters that flow into the park, but also the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, Wyoming's only federally-designated Wild and Scenic river.  Four tons of this sulphide-bearing rock will have to be mined to produce each once of gold, and most of this gold will be made into jewelry.


Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corp of Engineers have stated concerns about the proposed tailings impoundment design.  This would create a 70 acre bathtub of highly acidic muck in the headwaters of Fisher Creek, an all-too-likely situation that prompted the American Rivers organization to name Fisher Creek as "The most endangered River in the U.S."


The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs goes on record as being wholly opposed to the Noranda's "New World Mine" project as: (a) being unnecessary for the economy of the country, (b) it gives away non-renewable mineral resources with no compensation to the U.S. taxpayer (and by so-doing, subsidizes a foreign corporation!), and (3) it would pose a completely unacceptable risk to the gem of the U.S. National Parks, and a World Heritage Park.


The Federation also strongly recommends prompt Congressional action to provide a environmentally sound and fiscally-prudent new Mining Act.


The Federation requests Members and Member Clubs to convey this opinion to their respective federal legislators.



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