Gold Mine Firm Avoids Moratorium Crown Butte Stakes Claims For Project Near Yellowstone

A mining company pressing to build a gold mine near Yellowstone National Park has apparently sidestepped a high-profile attempt by President Clinton to curb the project, federal officials said Tuesday.

Crown Butte Mines staked claims last week on about 186 acres of land, just days before the effective date of Clinton’s directive to impose a two-year moratorium.

Clinton announced his plans on Aug. 25, while on vacation at the nation’s oldest national park, and explained his action the next day in his weekly radio address.

The venture, controlled by a Canadian mining company, filed its claims on Aug. 29 and Aug. 31 with the federal Bureau of Land Management. The president’s directive was published in the Federal Register on Sept. 1.

Clinton’s moratorium did not extend to the actual New World Mine site, but instead aimed at land where Crown Butte had proposed expanding its storage of gold-mine waste. Still, environmentalists had hailed his moratorium as effectively stemming a project they view as a serious environmental threat to Yellowstone. The New World Mine is proposed for near the northeast corner of the park.

The White House referred comment to the Interior Department.

“It clearly violates the president’s action and threatens Yellowstone National Park,” said Stephanie Hanna, an Interior Department spokeswoman. “I’m sure those claims will be processed with a very jaundiced eye.”

An official in the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management in Montana confirmed details of Crown Butte’s new mining claims and said that the company filed them before the president’s moratorium became effective.