Business in brief: Mine firm preps for exploration
Mines Management Inc. is raising $30 million through a public offering to pay for two years of advanced exploration and drilling work at its Montanore project in northwestern Montana.
The silver-copper deposit is located underneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area.
Last fall, Mines Management received a state permit allowing the company to begin exploration and drilling activities at an audit located about 15 miles south of Libby, Mont. The work will help the company assess the economics of opening the mine, said Doug Dobbs, vice president for corporate development and investor relations.
Company officials estimate that the mine could produce about 8 million ounces of silver and 60 millionpounds of copper annually. It would employ about 300 people in Montana’s Lincoln County.
Mines Management acquired full ownership of the Montanore project in 2002, when the former majority owner, Noranda Inc., pulled out.
Concurrent to the exploration activities, Dobbs said the company has begun the permitting work needed to start up the mine. The U.S. Forest Service is expected to issue a draft environmental impact statement on the Montanore project later this year.
Liberty Lake
SprayCool system tested on plane
Heat-management systems made by Liberty Lake-based SprayCool were part of a new electronic sensor package tested recently aboard manned U.S. Air Force high-altitude reconnaissance planes.
The systems were included in the first flights of a U-2 spy plane equipped with a next-generation Northrop Grumman Corp. sensor, according to a SprayCool news release. The sensor “identifies and locates radar and other types of electronic and modern communication signals,” the release said. A variant of the sensor will also be used on the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.
The sensors are expected to be deployed on U-2s in 2008 and on Global Hawks in 2012, according to the release.
Denver
Summer may see high gas prices
Uncertainty about refinery capacity in spots like Nigeria and Venezuela could lead to higher gasoline prices for U.S. consumers this summer, federal energy officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration – the statistical arm of the Energy Department – expects average gasoline prices of $2.81 a gallon this summer, down from $2.84 last summer, although prices could vary widely between different states and from month to month. The outlook forecasts a peak in the average price at $2.87 in May.
Those prices are already showing up at the pump, though, after refinery problems and unrest abroad. Energy Administrator Guy Caruso said the forecast for the summer should still hold.
The administration’s prediction of gas prices this summer was based on projected refinery capacity, rising demand for gas, slightly lower imports and less gas on hand.
Caruso said inventories are about 7 million barrels below normal going into the summer driving season.