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Wallace - I promise to get off this soap
bucket soon, but it's necessary to get a few more of these greenies-as-fraud
stories written before they fade from hard-drive memory.
Our next story is set in the Canadian
Arctic, New York City, Washington, D.C. (whence all things evil come from),
and Noxon, Mont. It began with a full-page ad in
the Washington Post by none other than jeweler Tiffany's CEO, Michael
Kowalski.
The Tiffany ad denounced plans by Revett Minerals to open the Rock Creek mine near Noxon. Rock Creek had been facing fierce opposition from
such scientific heavyweights as singers Bonnie Raitt
and Jackson Browne.
Kowalski's advertisement prefaced the
launch of the so-called “No Dirty Gold” campaign by such
environmentalist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as Earthworks -
formerly the Mineral Policy Center - created to repeal the 1872 Mining Law.
Tiffany's, one of the biggest gold and
diamond retailers in the world, is a major sponsor of No Dirty Gold.
No Dirty Gold's website proclaims:
“Gold Mining is one of the dirtiest businesses in the world. The
production of one gold ring generates 20 tons of mine waste.”
What all this has to do with a
copper-silver mine in northwestern Montana, I can't explain. But Tiffany's
put enough gold in the jackboots of the NGOs to put a considerable crimp in Revett's plans, and also for the job prospects of several
hundred Montanans.
Well, that's typical greenie behaviour. You expect them to hire a few rock stars and
lawyers, and then start launching and stomping on the locals who'd like
opportunities for honest work.
But here's where the story gets weird.
Even as Kowalski was rending his garments and gnashing his teeth over a small
copper project in Montana, Tiffany's — in partnership with operator Rio
Tinto — was preparing to rip apart the Canadian Arctic for diamonds.
This involved ripping the Arctic open, draining, and moving Lac de
Gras — an entire lake — a lake teeming with fish in a habitat
occupied by caribou, numerous little critters, birds, and two Native tribes.
All to mine for rocks that make decorative trinkets which ladies wear on
their fingers. An entire lake! Wonder how many “tons of mine
waste” it takes to make a single 1-karat diamond ring?
Tiffany's is now out of the Diavik venture, as the Lac de Gras project is called.
According to Diavik's website, jeweler Harry
Winston is now the partner. (Interestingly, Winston is not listed as a party
to the No Dirty Gold campaign.) The lake was successfully moved, as was most
of the wildlife, and Diavik is doing an admirable
job of recording caribou travel through the region.
As a mining operation, Diavik probably exemplifies state-of-the-art. Mining and nature
can co-exist, even with aboriginal cultures and lots of critters involved.
You can rearrange nature without hurting her. Diavik
employs 1,000 people. And Harry Winston, not Tiffany's, now gets the diamonds
not drenched in the blood of the poor Africans of Sierra Leone. No doubt
Kowalski has gone back to the Swiss or another source for blood diamonds.
In writing a story about this business
six years ago, I called the anti-mining NGOs and described a proposed
copper-silver mine that would involve relocating an entire lake here in the
U.S. They were mortified. “Where was this?” they wanted to know.
I said, “Excuse me, I meant a diamond mine in Canada financed by their
benefactor, Tiffany's.” (I can be a rotten guy.)
Several, including No Dirty Gold and Earthworks,
actually got back to me: “We have no position on diamond-mining”
was their CEO’s goose-step answer.
Tiffany's Kowalski never called back.
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