Mining resurgent in West

KELLOGG, Idaho -- Condos and a gondola have replaced giant smokestacks and piles of mine waste that used to greet visitors in this northern Idaho town as it turned to the ski industry for survival.

But with the price of metals skyrocketing, a growing number of workers are putting on hardhats and riding cages into the ground once again -- many of them former residents who left for mining jobs elsewhere.

The scene is the same in several other Western mining towns that were long given up for dead, including Butte, Mont., Leadville, Colo., and Elko, Nev.

"A lot of people who left have been coming back because things are pretty good," said Rick Decker, a miner for three decades and president of Local 5114 of the United Steelworkers in Kellogg.

Silver was discovered here when prospector Noah Kellogg's mule kicked over a shiny rock of ore in 1885. Well into the 1970s, the Silver Valley employed about 4,000 people in mining. Then the price of silver plummeted, the huge Bunker Hill smelter closed and mining was nearly wiped out here in the 1980s. Shoshone County's population fell 28 percent then as people left to find work.

Over the years, pollution caused by decades of mining was cleaned up in a massive Superfund project at the old smelter site and Kellogg was reborn as a tourist destination. Population has slowly grown back, topping 13,000 in 2006, with a water park, 18-hole golf course and luxury homes going up on the edge of town.

While tourism still gets most of the attention, the community has added 200 mining jobs in the past year, bringing the total to 705. That's about twice the number at the lowest point in 2003.

The mining jobs pay an average of $57,000 a year, huge by local standards. By contrast, the 470 tourism jobs average $10,000 a year in pay, according to state figures.

Mining, including zinc and lead as silver byproducts, produces the kind of steady work force that buys homes and blends into the community, compared to more transient tourism workers, said Norma Douglas, head of the Silver Valley Chamber of Commerce.

"Those dollars stay here day in and day out," she said.

Local officials are confident the two industries can co-exist.

"We will become a national destination for year-round family fun," said Jeff Colburn, general manager of the Silver Mountain ski resort, which offers year-round family fun with an indoor water park, hiking trails and other activities.

Said Bob Hopper, co-owner of the New Bunker Hill Mine, "It has all the appearances it will be ongoing and sustainable."

Vicki Veltkamp, spokeswoman for Hecla Mining Co., said its 65-year-old Lucky Friday Mine still has rich silver reserves and could be expanded and operated for decades.

"We expect a very long life at the Lucky Friday, even if prices dip," she said.

Hecla, which was down to 50 employees at the mine a few years ago, now employs 265 there and is conducting a major study to determine if it should expand production to take advantage of the high prices.

As skilled miners move to town for the new jobs, they are bumping into one ugly reality of the tourism growth. Home prices have doubled or more in recent years, often topping $150,000. The modest old houses that miners traditionally owned have been snapped up and turned into vacation rentals.

"They are having some sticker shock," Douglas said.