Some ASARCO Inc. employees didn’t like it when Sandpoint businesses sponsored a recent fund-raiser for the Rock Creek Alliance, which opposes the proposed Rock Creek Mine.

“We were preparing for the party, and a gentleman from ASARCO called and just filled us in on how uneducated we were,” recalled Chris Drahof, co-owner of the Red Martin Natural Foods Cafe.

Later, another woman called and threatened a boycott of the business.

“She said they weren’t going to support any of the sponsors who were sponsoring this festival,” Drahof recalled.

The sponsors of the “awareness gathering” included several well-established Sandpoint businesses, but Drahof doesn’t think anyone backed down because of the calls.

“It fueled the fire,” he said. “Sponsors were telling me how it gave them a boost…When these people called it really hit home to them. It was almost like a battle had begun.”

Dave Young, the Rock Creek Mine project manager for ASARCO, said there was no organized effort to discourage Sandpoint businesses from supporting the Rock Creek Alliance.

“It’s a free country. I can’t control what people do on their free time,” he said. “If folks felt that way, I guess that’s their own business.”

Drahof said ASARCO was invited to the fund-raiser, but no one from the company showed up.

“I understand people need to make a living and put food on the table,” Drahof said. “But I just want to make people aware of what the consequences are.”

Young suspects that none of ASARCO’s opponents has even been in a mine, let alone any of ASARCO’s. He’s issued an open invitation to just about anyone to visit the Troy mine.

“If they want to get the facts, they need to come out and talk to us,” he said.

, DataTimes