CdA Mines completes sales
Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. has completed the sale of its Galena Mine and other Silver Valley properties to U.S. Silver Corp. for $15 million.
The sale, completed Thursday, is expected to result in a one-time, pre-tax gain of $10 million to $12 million for the company during the second quarter.
In earlier interviews, the mine’s new owners said that the Galena’s 180 workers will keep their jobs and that they plan to invest heavily to boost production.
U.S. Silver Corp. is a new company, which formed to buy the Galena Mine. The sale included several exploration properties. Mark Hartmann, U.S. Silver’s president, formerly worked at the Sunshine Mine.
Spokane
BPA offers aid to smelters, mill
Three Northwest aluminum companies and a Port Townsend paper mill can collect federal subsidies worth $295 million during the next five years from the Bonneville Power Administration.
The deal between the companies and Bonneville, the government agency that delivers electricity from the federal government’s massive Columbia River dams and other power plants, is an attempt to preserve what’s left of an important Northwest industry – aluminum smelting.
Bonneville was under no obligation to give money or sell cheap power to smelters, including two owned by Alcoa Inc., two others in Goldendale, Wash., and The Dalles, Ore., and another in Columbia Falls, Mont.
Yet the agency, with input from public utility customers, politicians and others, decided to offer the companies an incentive to operate. The smelters and paper mill have been longtime buyers of Bonneville megawatts.
To collect the money, the companies must be operational and use the subsidies to buy electricity on the open market.
Other safeguards are built into the agreement to ensure the subsidies are spent to benefit the Northwest economy, a Bonneville spokesman said.
Spokane Valley
Valley housing to be spruced up
Some 150 volunteers and residents of an affordable housing development in Spokane Valley will work together Saturday to beautify and complete the 74-unit Dishman Commons neighborhood.
The event, which runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., is part of a national, weeklong celebration of neighborhood revitalization activities known as National NeighborWorks Week, according to a news release issued by Community Frameworks of Spokane.
Community Frameworks, a nonprofit organization that promotes affordable housing, developed the Dishman Commons subdivision with Greenstone Corp., a for-profit developer. The development is located at 10015 E. 17th Lane.
The national NeighborWorks network is an affiliation of more than 240 nonprofit organizations that promotes homeownership and affordable housing and revitalizes neighborhoods in 4,414 communities nationwide, the news release said.