Boise County mine: a bonanza or a big bother? | Environment | Idaho Statesman
A giant copper and molybdenum mine could provide Boise County with the kind of long-term economic engine that carried Idaho into statehood more than a century ago.
If the deposit turns out to be as large as the Canadian company that owns the rights hopes, it could employ as many as 2,000 people during construction and create 1,000 full-time, high-paying jobs. That would turn Boise County from a rural county filled with Treasure Valley commuters into a self-sustaining economic center in its own right.
But a big project like the Cumo mine under study by Mosquito Consolidated Gold Mines Limited also brings increased crime and pressures to build schools, roads and housing for workers. The mine also raises questions about water quality that have residents up and down the Boise River concerned for the future.
Mining officials and the U.S. Forest Service say it's too early to start looking at the impacts of a mine that could be a decade away from development, if it ever even gets off the ground. But Boise County commissioners want to start those discussions now so they and residents can shape their own future.
"We want to be able to preserve the quality of life for our residents and survive economically," said Jamie Anderson, a commissioner from Garden Valley.
The Forest Service held a series of meetings through Saturday that looked at Mosquito's plans to expand exploration it began in 2008. Dozens of residents turned out in Crouch and Idaho City to hear for the first time the company's plans for the potentially huge deposit of copper and molybdenum 14 miles northeast of Idaho City.
Mosquito representatives will meet with the Boise County Commission for the first time Monday, even though the company has been drilling under a county conditional-use permit since 2008. The exploration project already has created impacts on county roads, but the company has paid relatively little for the services provided, Anderson said.
So far, the county has been treated just like a regular member of the public. "At this point we've been presented with a document," she said.
Idaho hasn't had a major mining development of the scope of the Cumo project since the 1980s, when Cypress Minerals developed the Thompson Creek Mine. Both the Cumo mining project and a potential natural gas field development on the west side of the Treasure Valley present Idaho with a planning challenge it hasn't seen for a long time, if ever, said John Freemuth, a political science professor at Boise State University.
He says Idaho can learn from the Wyoming oil and gas boom in the 1970s that went bust in the 1980s.
"If you are going to do a megaproject, many of the impacts are going to fall on the counties, the cities and schools," he said. "I think the state and the universities should help with information and the knowledge needed in negotiations to back them up."
The mining exploration company asked the U.S. Forest Service for permits to drill 260 exploratory holes and construct 10 to 13 miles of new temporary access roads in 2,848 acres of the Grimes Pass backcountry north of Idaho City. The agency has produced an environmental assessment but only of the exploration, since mining may be a long way off.
But Boise County wants the company and the Forest Service to work more closely with local government to coordinate the exploration and all of the steps that may lead to a mine. Idaho City District Ranger Barbara Levesque said it's too early to talk about mining because at the moment, all she has before her is an exploration project.
Freemuth praised Anderson for pushing back. The Forest Service should bring the county closer into its planning process, he said, because that's what its planning laws promise.
"They encourage the federal agencies to work with local government and synchronize their planning to what locals want," Freemuth said.
Anderson said Boise County can't ignore the obvious benefits the mine could bring. Thompson Creek accounts for 40 percent of the Custer County tax rolls. One of every five people who work in Custer County work for the mine.
But Thompson Creek hasn't away provided the economic benefits it brings today. Soon after it was opened in 1983 it was closed for a time. Its operations have risen and fallen with the price of molybdenum.
Today, with prices at around $15 a pound, Thompson Creek has 375 employees. But early in the past decade, when prices dropped to $2.50, the company had only 60 employees.
"Mining is boom-bust," said Ken Gardner, the Bureau of Land Management planner in Challis who is heading an environmental review of Thompson Creek's proposed expansion. "You are going to have your ups and downs."
Boise County commissioners want to ensure that the socio-economic impacts are addressed. They hope that the company will prepay its expected taxes to help the county deal with the influx of workers and the impacts on roads, schools and communities.
In Wisconsin, a state mining impact board pays counties and towns advance taxes so they can participate in the planning process - because unlike larger locales such as the city of Boise and Ada County, which have large planning staffs and expertise, smaller ones like Boise County do not.
In Custer County in the 1980s, Cypress purchased land and built homes to house up to 500 workers. But at the time the county didn't have planning or zoning and the workers were able to move trailers closer to the mine along the Salmon River. That hurt the scenery, caused septic problems and left many of the company homes empty for years.
"The reality is we are at an early stage, and this will play out over many years," Anderson said.
Rocky Barker: 377-6484
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