Idaho to oversee $50 million endowment for mining, water cleanup
Thu., June 19, 2014
BOISE – Idaho’s state endowment fund has been showing strong returns, so state officials had no qualms this week about putting the board that oversees the fund in charge of a new $50 million endowment designated to pay for a water treatment plant to help clean up mining contamination in the Silver Valley. The $50 million comes from Hecla Mining Corp. as part of a settlement of a Superfund lawsuit covering multiple companies and a wide swath of the Coeur d’Alene Basin where a century of mining spread contaminants.