FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

February 27, 2024

Team MCV expresses disappointment with Supreme Court ruling on Black Butte Copper Mine

(HELENA, Mont.) – Yesterday, the Supreme Court sided with the Department of Environmental Quality and the Black Butte Copper mine to grant the mine a permit to extract 14 million tons of copper from an underground mine near the headwaters of Sheep Creek – an important tributary of the Smith River. The Smith is Montana’s only permitted river and supports a robust outdoor recreation economy, ecologically important trout fisheries, wildlife habitat, and grazing lands.

“We are incredibly disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision to let modern day copper kings pollute one of Montana’s most beloved rivers,” said Whitney Tawney, Executive Director of the Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund. “Our state has a long history of environmental damage caused by corporate polluters. It’s high time it was recognized that some places are just too special to risk destroying. While we’re disappointed in this ruling, we’re hopeful that the challenge to the mine’s groundwater permit will be successful, and we won’t stop fighting for a mineral withdrawal on surrounding public lands.”