SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - The jeweler Tiffany & Co. is publicly opposing plans for a silver and copper mine beneath a wilderness area in Montana, prompting a forceful response Thursday from the Bush administration.
Tiffany officials paid for an open letter published Wednesday in The Washington Post that asked Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth, whose agency has approved the mine, to block construction. The mine would require boring three miles under the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area near the Montana-Idaho border.
Mark Rey, an undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, said the letter signed by Tiffany's chief executive was filled with errors, though he declined to say what they were. ``I'm guessing this ad in The Washington Post cost upwards of $50,000,'' said Rey, director of the administration's forest policy, in a telephone interview. ``For $49,999.63 less, they could have sent us this letter and given their customers a discount on their products.''
Mining interests also criticized Tiffany, suggesting the company was responding to threats of boycotts of its jewelry from environmentalists opposed to the mine."
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