CFAC cleanup costs

Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. is owned by Glencore Xtrata, the largest diversified commodities trader of coal, oil, copper, zinc, lead, aluminum, metal alloys and grain.

Recently, Sen. Jon Tester has expressed his support for a Superfund financed cleanup of the Columbia Falls Aluminum environmental liabilities.

He and many others may not be well informed of the history of Glencore Xtrata, their financial position and political history.

Marc Rich founded Glencore following his pardon by President Bill Clinton. Rich had been convicted of tax evasion and illegally making deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis and fled the country to avoid incarceration. He reportedly told his biographer that he made his “most important and most profitable business deals” by violating international trade embargos and doing business with the apartheid region in South Africa. His clients included Fidel Castro, Ayatolla Khomeni, the Nicaragua Sandanistas, Pinochet’s Chile and Muammar Gadafi.

Marc Rich’s wife, Denise, made contributions to Clinton’s political party of more than $1 million including $100,000 paid into Hillary’s Senate campaign.

Glencore merged with Xtrata in May 2013. As a condition of the merger, the government of China required the merged company (Glencore Xtrata) to sell their interest in the Las Bambas copper project in Peru. The sale to a Chinese state-controlled company Minmetals is expected to close in the third quarter 2014. The sale price is $5.85 billion, with another $400 million in development costs to be refunded to Glencore Xtrata — a total of $6.25 billion.

It seems prudent to inquire of the Honorable Sen. Tester and others, including some in the Flathead Valley, why they advocate for taxpayer-funded cleanup of Columbia Falls Aluminum’s environmental liabilities when the owning company has incredible financial resources.

Frank Hanson

Kila