Money found to pay off B.C. mining interests

It appears the money to pay off two companies with mining claims upstream of the North Fork has been found.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer announced last week that The Nature Conservancy of Montana and The Nature Conservancy of Canada agreed to compensate the two companies for their exploration expenses on 400,000 acres of claims in the Canada Flathead.

The Canada Flathead is the name used for the North Fork of the Flathead River drainage north of the U.S.-Canada border. The river not only drains into Flathead Lake but forms the border of Glacier National Park, a World Heritage site, and runs through the mostly undeveloped lands of the North Fork valley.

The two environmental groups will mount a campaign to raise about $9.4 million over the next three years to pay off the exploration expenses to British Columbia. The province will then compensate the companies, Cline Mining Co. and Max Resources.

British Columbia and Montana signed a memorandum of understanding nearly a year ago that banned mining and oil and gas exploration in the Canada Flathead watershed. But compensation was not provided for the two companies that had already spent money on exploration and development plans for coal and gold mines in the Canada Flathead.

Schweitzer had asked several federal agencies to come up with the funds to pay off the mining companies, which was then estimated at nearly $17 million. The lower pay-out figure emerged after the mining companies submitted invoices to the province.

“This is all they will be paid for,” Schweitzer told reporters at Flathead Valley Community College on Feb. 15. “They have agreed with the province of British Columbia that is all they will be compensated for.”

The figure could have been much higher, Schweitzer said — British Columbia stands to lose from $5 billion to $7 billion in royalties had Cline’s coal mine and Max Resource’s gold mine gone into production.

Kat Imhoff, director of The Nature Conservancy in Montana, said the non-profit group has made a broad and expansive effort to keep the Crown of the Continent ecosystem intact in recent years.

“Rivers don’t carry passports, and what happens upstream won’t stay upstream,” Imhoff said about the North Fork deal. “The Flathead defines Northwest Montana, so whether you fish, float or simply like knowing that grizzlies still have room to roam, this is an investment in the future — of this place and of our children.”

Meanwhile, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester announced Feb. 15 that they have a formal commitment from British Columbia to pursue legislation that will codify three North Fork protective measures that were adopted earlier by executive orders.

The senators have also promoted efforts to retire oil and gas leases without using taxpayer dollars. On Feb. 17, the senators announced that four more companies had voluntarily agreed not to pursue oil and gas development on more than 15,000 acres near the North Fork of the Flathead River.

Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc., Clayton Williams Energy Inc., Forest Oil Corp. and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. have relinquished their interests in 11 leases in the region, the senators said. The leases were co-owned in part by XTO, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, which relinquished its ownership share in September 2010.

 To date, Baucus and Tester have secured the voluntary return of more than 200,000 acres of oil and gas leases — about 80 percent of the total acreage on the U.S. side of the border, including leases in the Haskill Creek drainage, which forms the watershed for the city of Whitefish’s drinking water reservoir.