Missoulan Miners Offer Regulators Some Hard Lessons
In a matter of months, the contractor appointed to maintain water-treatment facilities at the defunct Zortman-Landusky gold mine south of Malta depleted the annual budget for the work. For now, the state of Montana has taken over, and taxpayers are footing the bill for work needed to control water pollution.
That may be the least of troubles in store at a mine once touted as a model of MontanaÕs new mining industry. State officials say it may take as much as $38 million to reclaim Zortman-Landusky as required by law. But the mine operator, Pegasus Gold, went bankrupt. While in operation, Pegasus posted bonds to ensure reclamation, but those bonds total $29.6 million. Lawyers for the state got another $1 million for reclamation from the bankruptcy court overseeing reorganization of Pegasus. Optimists at the Department of Environmental Quality hope the money will stretch far enough. All in all, the state is counting on nearly $80 million worth of bonds to ensure cleanup at five Pegasus mines.