Mine tagged for cleanup

Washington state has added the abandoned Black Bear Mine in far north-central Washington to its list of hazardous sites for cleanup. The mine is on the southwest side of Palmer Mountain, 100 miles north of Wenatchee.

The mine produced gold, silver and copper on federal property managed by the Bureau of Land Management until about 1947. The site has a waste rock pile contaminated with cadmium, lead and mercury, said Valerie Bound, of the state Department of Ecology.