Coeur dAlene Mines Corp. is fighting back against a flagging metals market by spinning off its environmental and governmental relations operation into a subsidiary that will do consulting work for the Coeur dAlene-based mining company, its competitors, and for other industries.


Called Earthworks Technology Inc., the 6-month-old Boise-based subsidiary hopes to open a branch office in Coeur dAlene by October, says Rick Richins, president of Earthworks and former vice president of environmental services and governmental affairs at Coeur dAlene Mines.


The mining company started talking about spinning off its award-winning environmental team a year and a half ago, Richins says.


It occurred to us that if we could do a good job for our own company we should try to carry that over into the rest of the industry, he says. We (also) decided that a lot of the skills and expertise we had developed on the mining side of things applied to other resource development.


The Boise office opened in March, with Richins and two other employees on staff, he says. The Coeur dAlene office will open in leased space at 409 W. Neider, near U.S. 95, and initially will have four or five employees, Richins says. It will be headed by Jeff Smith, Earthworks chief operating officer and the former vice president of North American operations at Coeur dAlene Mines. Richins will continue to have his office in Boise and spend much of his time there.


Earthworks absolutely is intended to be a source of revenue for Coeur dAlene Mines in the face of some of the lowest metals prices in two decades, Richins says.


The idea that we could diversify, particularly when mining is down was a major driver in Earthworks creation, he says.


Richins says he knows of only one other mining company that has done something similarAsarco Inc., which spun off its environmental operations as a subsidiary in 1979.


Laura Skaer, executive director of the Northwest Mining Association here, says she thinks Coeur is making a smart move.


Mining companies are asking themselves, how can we sharpen the pencil and improve the operation? she says. One of (the ways) is what Coeur dAlene Mines is doing in creating a company like Earthworks.


Adds Skaer, Coeur dAlene Mines is a good company to be doing this because their environmental staff has won several reclamation awards from various government agencies over the last few years.


Indeed, Coeurs most recent annual report says that over the past 15 years, the company has received 19 national and international awards from government agencies, environmental groups, and the mining industry for its environmental activities.


Earthworks specializes in mining-related environmental work, including project planning and permitting, compliance, and reclamation and remediation. That includes mine-cleanup projects as well as closing down defunct mines that pose a public-safety hazard, Smith says. Richins says the company also can help clients formulate government-affairs programs and plans to market its services outside of the mining industry, to other natural resource-based companies as well as to government organizations.


One of Earthworks current projects, for example, is helping an Anchorage, Alaska-based telecommunications company, GCI, develop emergency-response and spill-contingency plans for more than 20 company sites in that state, Richins says. Such plans are commonplace in the mining industryweve been doing that for many years, he says.


Another project is helping Sealaska Corp., an Alaska native corporation, devise a land-exchange agreement through which it hopes to swap some of its property for property owned by a mining company, Richins says.


Yet a third current project is finishing cleanup of a former mill site near Osburn, Idaho, he says.


Will Coeur dAlene Mines competitors hire a consulting company thats closely tied to Coeur?


While Richins says, thats an issue were working on, he believes it wont be an issue in the long term because the type of work we get involved in is really not of a competitive nature.


In addition, Earthworks has a depth of experience in mining-related issues that many other consultants will lack, he asserts. In particular, the companys employees have been involved with projects from the initial stages of permitting until we actually got to reclaim the projects and walk away, he says. Weve seen the full life cycle of a project.


Skaer says that while mining companies are struggling, theres still plenty of industry-related environmental work to go around. Most modern-day mining projects must reclaim as they go, with further reclamation work done after mining is finished and all equipment is removed, she says. In addition, its common for mining companies to outsource the kinds of consulting work that Earthworks will specialize in, she says.


For those reasons, Earthworks is a good way (for Coeur dAlene Mines) to go in a depressed market, Skaer believes. I would imagine if metal prices stay down, companies will find other creative ways in which to continue to reduce their costs and stay in business.