HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Executives for a company planning to mine copper and silver beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness are on a Montana road trip, trying to spread a message of environmental responsibility and economic development.

Revett Minerals chief executive William Orchow called the trip an "educational tour" saying Wednesday that he found much of the reporting about the proposed Rock Creek mine reflected "the point of view of our opposition."

Revett wants to mine copper and silver beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in northwestern Montana, a project that jeweler Tiffany & Co. criticized in a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post last year. Although mining would be beneath the wilderness, disturbance of the land's surface would be outside wilderness boundaries.

Environmental groups' lawsuits, one the subject of a hearing last week in Helena, have sought to block the project.

Orchow said talks with legislators in Idaho, where the mine has raised concerns about drainage and water quality, revealed some thought inaccurately that Revett planned an open-pit operation using cyanide leaching technology.

"That didn't come from us," he said.

Montana voters passed a 1998 initiative, written by the Montana Environmental Information Center, that prohibits new mines from using the cyanide in a process known as "heap-leach" mining.

On Sunday, Revett advertised in Montana newspapers, ads that not only rebutted charges the mine poses a risk to grizzly bears but said the mine stands to produce some benefits for the bears, which are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. The mining plan includes $18 million in bear conservation measures.

"I think it's absurd for anybody to think that mining is good for grizzly bears," Mary Mitchell of the Rock Creek Alliance, a leading opponent of the mine, said Wednesday.

"I think people are going to see this for what it is: a PR blitz," Mitchell said from Sandpoint, Idaho.

Orchow and Carson Rife, Revett's vice president of operations, scheduled meetings with newspaper editorial boards in Montana and planned to be in Denver on Thursday to meet with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency is rewriting its analysis of the mine's potential effects on grizzly bears and bull trout, an analysis found defective by a federal judge ruling on one of the lawsuits.

Revett is seeking government clearances to move ahead with the first phase of the Rock Creek project. The company believes the start of work is close and therefore has hired more than enough workers for Revett's nearby Troy mine, so that trained employees will be ready for Rock Creek's startup, Orchow said.