After 17 years of fighting, Atna finally throws in the towel on Seven-Up Pete gold venture

One of the best known, longest and most costly fights over a U.S. mining project in recent memory has finally come to an end after the U.S. Supreme Court said it will not hear the Seven-Up Pete gold venture case.

RENO, NV - 

After 17 years of litigation, ballot initiatives, documentaries and every other tool proponents and opponents could think of throwing into the mix, the long battle of Seven-Up Pete could finally be over.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Golden, Colorado-based Atna Resources (TSX: ATN) quietly announced that its petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court in the case of Seven-Up Pete Venture, et al. v Brian Schweitzer, et al. was denied.

In 1991, a group of miners and mining entities known collectively as Seven-Up Pete Venture acquired mineral rights near Lincoln, Montana, near the Blackfoot River for $70 million. The river was featured in the Robert Redford/Brad Pitt homage-to-fly-fishing film, A River Runs Through It, in 1992 and in the High Plains Films' documentary Mining Seven-Up Pete in 1995. 

By the mid-1990s, the venture had negotiated with Montana state officials to begin mining operations on land which was believed to contain more than 4 million ounces of gold and 10 million ounces of silver.

However, Montana voters approved a ballot initiative in November 1998 which banned the recovery of gold and silver in new mining projects that would use cyanide heap leaching, effectively bringing Seven-Up Pete to a halt. Their vote was reinforced by the defeat of a second initiative begun by then venture partner Canyon Resources CEO Richard DeVoto aimed at repealing the original cyanide process ban for new mining projects. A former mining professor, the highly respected DeVoto would eventually succumb to cancer shortly after he retired from Canyon Resources during the long fight over the gold project.

The mining venture was required to exhaust their state remedies with a lawsuit in Montana state court.  In April 2000, Seven-Up Pete also filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Montana for unconstitutionally "taking" their property.  By June 2005, the Montana Supreme Court rejected Seven-Up Pete's claims and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the state court case.

Their state remedies exhausted, Seven-Up Pete sought relief through the federal courts, when in April 2006, a U.S. District Court ruled that Montana was immune under the U.S. Constitution's 11^th Amendment and that the federal court had to defer to the Montana Supreme Court. In April 2008, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the federal court ruling that Montana was immune from federal takings claims.

However, William Perry Pendley, president and CEO of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, appealed the 9^th Circuit court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a June 2008 article, Pendley noted that most state constitutions also bar the seizure of private property for public use without just compensation. He asserted that Seven-Up Pete exhausted its rights under the state constitution and was legally eligible to seek compensation from the federal district court.

"Seven Up Pete's petition must be heard," Perry argued; otherwise, state courts with a myopic view of the Takings Clause will eviscerate, not only state constitutional property rights guarantees, but also those in the United States Constitution."

"We are disappointed but not surprised by this outcome," said James Hesketh, president and COO of Atna Resources, which now owns Seven-Up Pete. "While we feel that we had a strong case, competition for space on the Supreme Court's crowded docket is high."

"This decision now ends our pursuit of this case. Atna would very much like to thank the MSLF for their defense and support of this case," Hesketh concluded.

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