Mining Benefits Called Temporary Opponents Of Rock Creek Mine Say Town Should Look At Troy

Local communities should be skeptical of glowing employment and tax projections for the proposed Rock Creek Mine, an environmental group said Wednesday.

“Mining is a very unstable form of economic development because of the ups and downs of the metals market,” said Dori Gilels, Montana director of the Rock Creek Alliance.

Sterling Mining Co., which is in the process of getting federal and state permits for the mine, estimates it would create 330 jobs in Sanders County and contribute $1.5 million annually in property taxes.

But Gilels told Sanders County commissioners on Wednesday that residents should view those projections in the context of what happened at the nearby Troy Mine.

That mine closed three years ahead of schedule, and property tax revenues were just 30 percent of projected levels, said Tom Goerold, a minerals economist hired by the Rock Creek Alliance. “The Troy project could not cope with low silver prices,” he said.

The environmental group hired Goerold to study the socio-economic benefits of the Troy Mine, another underground copper-silver mine that operated in Lincoln County from 1981 to 1993. The mine is so similar to the proposed Rock Creek Mine “its like it was made in a science lab for a control group,” said Goerold of Golden, Colo.

The Troy Mine opened a year after silver prices peaked at around $50 per ounce during the Hunt Brothers’ ill-fated effort to corner the silver market in 1980. Prices declined rapidly, and production only reached two-thirds of anticipated output, Goerold said. By comparison, silver on Wednesday traded at $5.29 an ounce.

Far from bringing prosperity to surrounding communities, the Troy mine might have boosted unemployment by attracting a number of unsuccessful job seekers to the community, he said.

Sterling officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

However, not everyone in the audience agreed with the environmental group’s conclusion.

“I think we need to ask, `Who commissioned the study?”’ said Bruce Clark, a Troy resident who works at the mine. Company officials would probably give a very different perspective, he said.

Taxes from the Troy Mine built a computer lab at a local elementary school, he said. It brought an infusion of professionals into the area that served on local school boards and volunteer fire districts. The mine also trained a number of local workers who moved into other skilled jobs when it shut down, Clark said.

The Troy Mine may not have had on-going economic benefits, but it helped bring jobs into one of the poorest areas of Montana, said Jim Elliott, a former state legislator from Trout Creek. “For the 325 guys who worked there, it was great.”

Sanders County commissioners took the study under advisement.

The county is grappling with an exodus of young families and questions about its economic future, said Commissioner Gail Patton. Economic opportunities “don’t come to us very often,” he said. “We’re looking for any industry.”

“I don’t really see what the big hubaloo over us is,” Commissioner Hank Laws said. “We have no vote on this. We don’t write the permit for the mine.”

Gilels said she hoped commissioners would use the information to lessen community impacts if the mine is permitted. Montana’s Hard Rock Mining Impact Act, passed after the opening of the Troy Mine, give counties some resources to plan for impacts to schools and other public facilities, she said.

“We had a rare opportunity to look at a project that was almost identical,” she said.