Tiffany joins Utah mining protest

New York, N.Y.-based jewelry giant Tiffany & Co. recently took out a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post protesting the proposed Rock Creek copper-silver mine in northern Idaho.

The mine, situated in the Cabinet Mountains, has been the subject of various protests by environmental groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the Sierra Club, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and the Montana Wilderness Association, but this marks the first time a major company has joined the anti-mining lobby.

“The Rock Creek mine focuses on many of the issues surrounding what we believe is the need to reform the general mining law of 1872,” says Tiffany CEO Michael Kowalski. He adds that changing the mining law is necessary to protect the environment, even though such a move could increase the price of precious metals.

Environmentalists fear the proposed mine would send toxic mine tailings into Lake Pend Oreille, near Sandpoint, Idaho, and threaten local populations of bears and bull trout.

The mining rights are owned by Idaho-based Sterling Mining, which intends to extract 10,000 tons of ore daily over about 30 years. At full capacity, the mine would employ 355 people.

The U.S. Forest Service says the mine meets federal mining law standards. U.S. mining laws have largely gone unchanged for more than a century.

Tiffany is involved in mining in various ways. In 2002, the jeweler entered into an agreement to buy more than 1 million oz. gold and silver combined from Kennecott Utah Copper over a specific period. Kennecott Utah is a wholly owned subsidiary of London-based Rio Tinto.

Tiffany also owns a 14% stake in Toronto-based Aber Diamond via an off-take agreement that calls for the former to buy at least US$50 million worth of diamonds annually over 10 years from Aber’s Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories.

In the year ended Jan. 31, 2004, sales at Tiffany rose 17% to slightly more than US$2 billion, compared with US$1.77 billion in the previous year. Net earnings increased 13% to US$215.5 million (or US$1.45 per share), versus US$189.9 million (US$1.28 per share) in the previous fiscal year.