Change Of Command Tim Olson Becomes A Sounding Board For Frustrated Mining Firms

Tim Olson has about 2,500 customers to meet in his new job.

The Coeur d’Alene resident started this week as the new executive director of the Northwest Mining Association. With nearly 2,500 mining companies as members, Olson looks to wear out his phone to find out what’s on their mind.

“We need to improve the value of being part of the association for our members,” Olson said. “That’s my biggest challenge in front of me now.”

Olson had just started with Blue Shield of Idaho in December after four years with ITEX Environmental Services Inc., a Dallas-based environmental cleanup technology firm. Olson served as regional director until December, when the company asked him to move to Dallas.

During this time, Olson was elected president of the mining association, a non-salary position. He and the mining association trustees had picked the successor to Karl “Bill” Mote, the group’s director for 19 years.

But the trustees’ choice cooled to the idea of taking the helm of one of the largest mining associations in the West. The trustees then offered the position to Olson, who, facing the prospect of moving his family to Lewiston for Blue Shield, chose to stay home.

A Silver Valley native, Olson is no stranger to mining. Stints with the Bunker Hill Mining Co. as director of labor relations and Sunshine Mining Co. and Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. in human resources positions have given him solid background for an industry facing difficult times.

“We’re all part of the same family in this business,” he said. “From the geologists to the engineers to the gypo miner and down to the laborers and the families that support them.”

The association provides technical support and political lobbying on behalf of its members. Olson will focus on maintaining the quality of those services, along with exploring some new directions.

“I think the association needs to appreciate the people who really make it happen in the industry - the miners themselves,” he said. “We have to better understand the contribution that the people who go underground, who break up the rock, who run the surface equipment to mill the ore.”

Olson, 47, now becomes sounding board for mining companies frustrated with increased government regulation for developing domestic mining properties. But with the Republican sweep of Congress, chances are improved that mining reform will pass this session or the next in a form palatable to industry.

Even if the trend of more regulation of mining slows or reverses, domestic mining companies will continue to exist. They’ll just spend exploration dollars overseas in search of minerals that can be mined far cheaper than in the United States.

“If we can make contact with the foreign countries out there, we can help facilitate these companies’ efforts to get in there,” Olson said. Nearly 30 countries sent delegations to the Northwest Mining Association Convention in December.

Ivan Urnovitz, who heads the government relations end of the association, said that the association will beef up its technical programs for mining companies interested in exploring abroad.

“We’re going to look at all of the things we’re doing right now,” Urnovitz said. “But we’ll definitely be doing more on the international side.”

One of the key challenges Olson faces is bringing back some of the bigger local mining companies that left the association over its proreform stance toward mining reform. Olson has talked with Coeur d’Alene’s Hecla Mining Co. and Boisebased Sunshine Mining & Refining Co. to persuade them to come back.

Bill Booth, director of investor relations for Hecla, said that the company will consider the possibility of rejoining the association sometime later this year.

“It’s difficult to address everyone’s needs in an association this size,” Olson said. “But you’ve got to do everything you can for the members.”