Mine backers move forward
Seventeen years ago, Christopher Herald struck gold at Buckhorn Mountain, a remote ridge in Washington’s Okanogan Highlands.
The geologist drilled 11 test holes near an old prospector’s cabin – a remnant of an earlier gold rush. Seven of the test holes turned up golden.
“The old-timers didn’t quite find the main ore body,” said Herald, president of Denver-based Crown Resources Corp. Ironically, “they were sleeping right on top of it.”
Herald’s discovery led to plans for Washington state’s first large open-pit gold mine, and a decade of permitting and legal battles. Battle Mountain Gold of Houston – Crown Resource’s former partner – pulled out in 2001 after being acquired by a new owner. Battle Mountain had sunk more than $60 million into the former Crown Jewel project.
Undeterred, Herald retooled the mine into a smaller, underground operation. The project now has a prospective buyer, a new name and a proposed opening date in early 2006.
Kinross Gold Corp., a Canadian firm that operates a small mine in nearby Ferry County, has signed a letter of intent to acquire the gold deposit. A supplemental draft environmental impact statement is due out this summer. Kinross officials hope to have the permits to begin building the Buckhorn Mine by year’s end.
“It’s a showcase example of redesigning a mine,” Herald said. “It went from significant impacts to very little impact.”
Building an open-pit mine would have torn up part of Buckhorn Mountain, generated 90 million tons of waste rock and created a “pit lake” that required perpetual treatment.
The underground mine will leave the mountain’s exterior relatively undisturbed. Even the milling would take place offsite. Trucks would haul the ore 47 miles to Republic, where a cyanide solution will be used to extract gold particles from the crushed rock.
About 120 people would work at the mine in Okanogan County, where average wages will be in the $53,000 range. The mill in neighboring Ferry County would employ another 40.
The new plan forfeits some of Buckhorn Mountain’s wealth. “We’re going after the richer parts of the gold,” Herald said.
Kinross expects to extract roughly 1 million ounces of gold over the mine’s seven-year life, worth $425 million at current gold prices. The open-pit plan would have mined nearly one-third more gold.
People who opposed the previous mine should feel good about their input, said Clyde Gillespie, Kinross’ Buckhorn project manager. “They won,” he said.
“We’ve eliminated the large dumps, the mill, the cyanide being trucked up the mountain,” Gillespie said. “The only way you’re going hear or see this mine is if you drive right up to it.”
Most Ferry County residents are looking forward to the mine’s opening, said Mike Blankenship, chairman of the county’s board of commissioners.
“It’s worth quite a bit to Ferry County in terms of jobs,” Blankenship said. “We lost our lumber mill two years ago. That represented 85 jobs. It left us in a pretty bad way.”
Not all of the jobs would be new ones. Kinross employs about 80 people at its existing K-2 gold mine, which may run out of ore by this summer. The company expects to transfer those workers to the Buckhorn Mine.
As executive director of the Okanogan Highland Alliance, Dave Kliegman spent years challenging the last proposal on environmental grounds.
Buckhorn Mountain lies in a remote region near the Canadian border, where sagebrush meets cliffs covered with pine and tamarack. Kliegman sometimes called it “the land time forgot.”
“This is really gorgeous country,” he said. “People live here for a variety of reasons, but most really appreciate the peace and quiet.”
The new plan alleviates some previous environmental concerns, but raises new ones, Kliegman said. Truck traffic, in particular, has emerged as a hot-button issue.
Ore trucks would make 50 round-trips to the mine per day. The 47-mile route would channel the trucks down the Kettle River Road, past the community of Curlew, and south to the mill, which lies west of Republic.
Kettle River Road resident Al Eveland already has a beef with Kinross ore truck drivers, which pass his place on the way to the company’s existing K-2 gold mine.
“I’ve seen them run over a deer, and not even get out to drag it off the road,” he said. “In 1975, I moved here for the beauty of the scenic river. It was a place of tranquility. You could walk and bicycle along the road. Those days are long gone.”
Richard Charlson also has concerns about increased truck traffic. Three years ago, the retired Microsoft employee bought land along the Kettle River for a retirement home. He put his house plans on hold when Kinross unveiled the route.
The smell of diesel already hangs in the narrow canyon on hot summer days, Charlson said. Add 100 extra truck trips each day and the odor would be unbearable, he said.
Charlson wants Kinross to split the truck traffic, so half of the ore trucks would take another route to the mine. He also thinks workers should be bused to the mine, to reduce employee traffic on the Kettle River Road
“Then it would be palatable to me,” he said. “I want a Good Neighbor agreement.”
Kinross’s Gillespie said the company evaluated routing the trucks south from the mine, through the communities of Wauconda and Republic, and west to the mill.
That route put the trucks on Republic’s steep, narrow Main Street, and sent them past a middle school and high school, Gillespie said. The company prefers the Kettle River Road, because it’s less populated.
At the Prospector Inn in Republic, owner Valerie Hester said she’s already seen an increase in stays from the mine project. The hotel’s guests have included engineers and surveyors working on the Buckhorn Mine, and journalists writing about it.
“It’s very important that Buckhorn project be allowed to go ahead,” said Republic Mayor Shirley Couse. “It’s something we desperately need to maintain the status quo.”
Nineteen percent of Ferry County residents live in poverty. Republic, population 997, is trying to attract new industry. Until that happens, “the mine is it,” Couse said. “If it goes away – to put it bluntly – we’re screwed.”