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FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS JANUARY 1, 2014 | 9

Lincoln County Mines Sit

Facts

Idle Into New Year
FIGURES

Numbers in the news

Mines Management CEO expresses 32%
frustration with Montanore Mine approval process

Americans who say 2013
was a better year than
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
2012, according to an AP-
Almost a year ago, Mines Management, Times Square poll.

Inc. CEO Glenn Dobbs stood in a mine adit
7,100 feet from the surface and said work
could begin inside the Montanore Mine in 20%
2013, as long as a federal record of decision
was made and the proper licenses were is-
sued.
Americans who say 2013
None of that has happened. And a year was worse for them than
later, the copper and silver mine just south 2012.

of Libby sits silent. It’s the same inside Re-
vett Mineral Inc.’s Troy Mine, which has
been shutdown for more than a year and 49%
probably won’t reopen until late 2014 be-
cause of a spate of underground rock falls.
The Troy Mine shutdown was a shock Americans who think their
to Lincoln County’s already fragile econo- own fortunes will improve

my. In late 2012, the mine employed more in 2014, according to the
than 200 people, all of whom were kept same poll.
on the payroll until May, when more than
half were laid of. Today, about 60 people
are working at the mine trying to reestab- A vehicle deep inside the Montanore Mine adit. FILE PHOTO BY LIDO VIZZUTTI | FLATHEAD BEACON
lish a route to the deposits of copper and $2.98
due to weak mineral prices and because sion of the environmental impact was re-
silver ore. On Dec. 20, the state announced blasting was releasing nitrates into Lib- leased in 2009 and a supplemental draft
that Lincoln County had the highest un- by Creek. The site was closed in 1995 and was issued in 2011. In early 2012, federal
Average gas prices per
employment rate in the state, at 13.5 per- gallon in Montana, the the project abandoned in 2002. State and oicials, including the Forest Service’s
cent.
federal permits soon expired. In 2005, as Lynn Hagarty, told the Beacon that be-
Dobbs said the opening of the Mon- cheapest in the nation copper and silver prices began to rebound, cause of the size of the project it would
tanore Mine would employ 500 to 600 among states.
Mines Management began to explore the take time to approve it.
people during construction and 350 peo- project and applied for new permits and Legal issues have also cropped up for
ple once it is fully operational. Dobbs said to update existing ones. At the time, the Mines Management in recent months,
the mine holds an estimated 230 million 9,671
mining company had hoped it would take with private citizens and other companies
ounces of silver and 2 billion pounds of two years to produce an environmental
saying that they have mine claims in the
copper, making it one of the largest depos- impact study and subsequent record of area. Dobbs said that would be sorted out
its on earth.
Estimated increase of decision. Nearly nine years later the U.S. in court.
Exploration for copper and silver un- Montana residents over Forest Service’s record of decision has still But while Dobbs said he is frustrated
der the Cabinet Mountains began in the the last year, according not been issued.
with the slow process, he feels conident
early 1980s by U.S. Borax. In the late “We don’t have whole lot to report,” the project will be approved in 2014. If ap-
1980s, Canadian-based Noranda Miner- to new data released by Dobbs said. “It continues to move at a gla- proved, the company could start hiring
als Corp. purchased claims and began the Census Bureau. North cial speed . The company and the com- within 45 to 60 days.

to develop the site and seek mining per- Dakota’s population grew munity are very frustrated with the whole “I think if this drags out beyond 2014,
mits. Noranda constructed a 14,000-foot by 3.1 percent, the highest process. It shouldn’t take this long.”
there will be a congressional hearing into
exploration shaft, just outside the Cabi- State and federal oicials have spent this process,” Dobbs said.
net Mountains Wilderness. The company percentage of any state.
years studying the mine’s potential efect [email protected]
stopped developing the project in 1990
on water, land and animals. A draft ver-