Gov. Schweitzer to Sign Mining, Drilling Ban

By Beacon Staff

HELENA – Leaders from Montana and British Columbia are scheduled to sign an agreement that bans mining and drilling in a valley along the U.S.-Canadian border north of Glacier National Park.

The press conference at which Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Premier Gordon Campbell will sign the agreement is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Mountain time in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The agreement was announced last week.

Efforts to stop mining in the region date to the 1980s, when a U.S.-Canada joint commission rejected an open pit coal mine in the valley because of potential environmental damage.