Business in brief: Thomas Hammer opens Post Falls shop
Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasting Co. has opened a Post Falls store on Highway 41, just 100 yards away from its competitor, Starbucks.
High traffic counts should make it a great location for both coffee shops, said Thomas Hammer, CEO of the firm that bears his name.
The Post Falls store is the 12th location for Thomas Hammer, which was founded in 1993. According to Hammer, the company is known for its fresh-roasted coffee and pastries baked daily at each store. The Post Falls store will also serve light breakfast fare.
“I think it will be a great weekend hangout for the area,” Hammer said.
The 1,500-square-foot store is located at 3904 E. Mullan Ave., at the corner of Mullan and Highway 41. Hours are 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday; and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays.
Coeur d’Alene
Silver prices renew interest in Snowstorm
With silver trading at nearly $13 per ounce, the historic Snowstorm Mine in Eastern Shoshone County is getting a second look.
Timberline Resource Corp. will spend $250,000 to $400,000 exploring the silver-copper mine and adjoining properties. The Snowstorm was a producing mine in the early 1900s. Exploration drilling at the property is targeted to begin later this year, said John Swallow, the company’s chairman and CEO.
The work at the Snowstorm is part of a renewed interest in Idaho’s Silver Valley. Not only is silver trading higher, but prices for copper and lead have increased as well. As a result, Hecla Mining Co. recently announced that it would begin exploring for new ore targets within the 40-square miles it controls in the Silver Valley.
Timberline bought the Snowstorm from Hecla about two years ago. The mine abuts Hecla’s holdings but is in a different type of rock formation, according to Swallow.
Timberline is headquartered in Coeur d’Alene. If the junior mining firm is successful in locating ore at the Snowstorm, it would partner with a larger firm to put the Snowstorm back into production, Swallow said.
Wichita, Kan.
Department reviewing farmer penalties
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns will decide by early this summer whether to ease contract penalties for farmers who pull acres out early from a government program that pays them to set their land aside for conservation, his department said Tuesday.
With ethanol demand driving corn prices higher, more farmers are mulling whether to take their land out of the Conservation Reserve Program – a move conservationists fear will lead to the loss of millions of habitat acres for game birds and other endangered species.
Johanns will base his decision in part on the Agricultural Statistics Service prospective planting report that comes out March 23, said Keith Williams, spokesman for the Agriculture Department in Washington, D.C.