Spokane-based Cominco American Inc. expects to call for bids this month on the first parts of a $70 million project to reopen the Pend Oreille zinc and lead mine near Metaline Falls, Wash., says Dave Godlewski, an environmental manager for Cominco American.


Last week, Cominco Americans Vancouver, British Columbia-based parent, Cominco Ltd., approved plans to reopen the underground mine, located about two miles north of Metaline Falls. A two-year construction program is expected to get under way in October so the mine can begin production in September 2002.


The first contract likely would be for expansion of a tailings impoundment, where waste rock would be stored, Godlewski says. The work would include some logging and excavation and building two small dams to prevent surface water in the waste-rock storage area from flowing into nearby creeks, he says.


Other early contracts would cover building a new ventilation shaft, repairing underground tunnels in the mothballed mine, and rehabilitating a conveyor system that would remove ore from the mine, he says. Later, several buildings at the mine site, including a mill, would be updated and expanded, new roads would be built, and pipelines would be constructed to carry water and slurry at the mill.


Cominco wants to encourage its contractors to hire crews from small towns in Pend Oreille County, which has been plagued with high unemployment for years, Godlewski says. Those workers then would be familiar with the mine, and Cominco could hire them to work there when the mine reopens, he says.


The mine is expected to employ about 170 people and to create about 70 jobs at other businesses in Pend Oreille County that would serve the mine and its workers, says an economic impact study Cominco completed last year. The mining company has worked closely with northeastern Washington communities near the mine to plan for the effectsgood and badof reopening, operating, and eventually closing the mine when its ore reserves are depleted, probably about 10 years after the mine is reopened.


The proposal to reopen the mine has cleared early regulatory hurdles. The Washington state Department of Ecology approved the final environmental impact statement (EIS) on the project in mid-July, clearing the way for Cominco American to begin seeking air-quality, water-quality, waste-discharge, and building permits it would need to reopen and operate the mine.


In early August, the Washington state Department of Ecology issued an administrative order that exempts the proposed mines waste rock from being designated as a dangerous waste, says Keith Stoffel, a project coordinator at Ecology. The exemption was allowed because the waste rock is already exempt under federal rules, and Cominco has shown that waste rock from past activity at the mine, which closed in 1977 after operating intermittently since the early 1900s, has had little effect on the environment, he says.


The exemption is the first post-EIS decision made on the proposed mine by the Department of Ecology. A 30-day period during which people could appeal the environmental impact statement ended last week with no appeals filed, although environmental groups may contest waste-discharge and other permits Cominco will seek for the project this fall, he says.