A mining operation that will create close to 100 jobs and cost upwards of $60 million to build could be coming to Baker County.
As first reported in the Baker City Herald, Sumpter Development LLC is planning to reopen four historic mines near Bourne.
The company is currently meeting with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries to see if it can get permission and permits from the state agency to use the mines.
Jayson Jacoby is the editor of the publication and reported on this story. He joins us to share more.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. It’s been more than 80 years since four gold and silver mines in Baker County shut down. Now, a Wyoming-based company wants to start them up again. Sumpter Development LLC wants to get more gold out of what’s been called the largest single vein in Oregon. Jayson Jacoby is the editor of the Baker City Herald. He wrote about this plan recently, and he joins us now. It’s great to have you back on the show.
Jayson Jacoby: Thanks, Dave.
Miller: So I mentioned this would be the first time that these veins have been mined in more than 80 years. What’s the history of these mines?
Jacoby: Yeah, so the North Pole-Columbia Lode, that’s what the geologists call this, it’s about five miles long, fairly narrow area that has some history of rich, rich gold and silver deposits. It really dates to about 1873 was the first records of this lode being mined, but the real peak period of mining on the lode was actually about 1899 to 1905. There’s some historical records that suggest more than 400,000 ounces of gold was taken from those four mines in just that six-year period.
Miller: Can you describe what the folks behind Sumpter Development have in mind right now?
Jacoby: Sure. Basically, they just want to reopen these four mines, the four major mines that intersected this lode. And they’re not talking about starting from scratch, they’re talking about going into existing tunnels, most of which, again, haven’t been open since before World War II, and basically extend those tunnels and try to reintersect that vein and continue to follow that and find new deposits.
Miller: How much silver and gold are they talking about extracting?
Jacoby: They expect, based on some historical records and some exploration work that was done in the early ‘80s, they expect to get about two ounces of silver for every ounce of gold. And in terms of ounces of gold, they’re talking tens of thousands over 8 to 10 years potentially. So based on gold prices today, I think we’re about $4,700. That’s a significant amount of money.
Miller: If there is so much silver and gold there for the taking, why hasn’t anyone mined it since the 1940s?
Jacoby: Yeah, I think there are probably at least two main reasons for that. One, the value of gold, until fairly recently, hasn’t been high enough to justify that. But maybe even a bigger issue, and this is based on conversations I’ve had over the years with miners as well as geologists, is the cost of underground mining, and we’re talking about tunnels. We’re not talking about surface deposits of gold that can be dredged or mined that way. Lots of excavation and digging, that’s very expensive. The permitting can be expensive for that.
And so, until now, there has only been, again, basically exploratory work. Back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when gold prices at that time peaked at around $800 to $1,000 an ounce, there was a fair amount of work that was done. A Canadian company did quite a bit of work, including on some of the mines that we’re talking about here, but no large-scale development actually happened. No large-scale mining happened, and the prices kind of went back down and so those two factors are the main ones.
Miller: I’m glad you brought up the prices there a couple of times, and as you said, now they’ve skyrocketed over the last two decades or so. But let’s say that this mine does go back into operation, that the state regulators, DOGAMI, say, yep, go ahead. And then somehow there are price drops in gold and silver again. Would that mean that the mine would shut down again? I guess I’m just wondering how sensitive to international gold prices this kind of operation would be.
Jacoby: Yeah, and I asked the developers that question as well, and they didn’t give me a firm figure, but the mining engineer, the chief mining technical officer for the company, basically said it would take, as he described it, two historic drops in gold prices to even get to where they considered a break-even point. So, I think there’s a considerable margin here for prices to potentially drop. He also mentioned that some of the analysts that he’s looked at are projecting potentially continuing increases in gold prices beyond even the records that were set earlier this year.
Miller: If you’re just tuning in, we’re talking about plans to restart some gold and silver mines in Baker County. Jayson Jacoby is our guest. He’s the editor of the Baker City Herald. So let’s talk about the land itself. I said this is in Baker County, near Sumpter. What can you tell us about the actual location here?
Jacoby: Yeah, so Sumpter is a historic gold mining town. It was founded in 1862, which is the same year that Baker County was created. Sumpter is about 28 miles west of Baker City. It’s on the west side of what’s known as the Elkhorn Mountains or the Elkhorn Ridge, which is a large subset of the Blue Mountains. And then these mines are near a much smaller town called Bourne, that was never incorporated. And it’s about 6 miles north of Sumpter. So the lode runs essentially east-west near this town of Bourne.
Miller: What have you been hearing from residents near Sumpter as the closest community, but other people in the surrounding areas about these plans?
Jacoby: Yeah, so Sumpter, a population of 210, and a lot of retired people. So there’s not a lot of businesses, not a lot of industry there. The people I’ve talked to, some business owners, as well as just longtime residents, I think there’s a little trepidation about the potential for a large increase in traffic, potentially. The business owners are certainly excited about the potential business growth from this with more customers. And I think too, several of the people I talked to, particularly ones who have lived in Sumpter for many decades, there’s a little bit of… I guess, I wouldn’t say suspicion, but maybe uncertainty.
They’ve heard similar, maybe smaller scale, but they’ve heard proposals to reopen some of these mines before that didn’t really come to fruition. So, a little bit of, not so sure that this will actually happen, but also a level of excitement about the potential economic benefit. The Baker County commissioners have talked about this, and they’re certainly excited about the potential for hiring up to 90 employees, a large payroll, property taxes, potentially.
Miller: Up to 90 employees, so what have you heard from the folks behind this plan about what employment might look like?
Jacoby: Yeah, and they certainly hope to attract the employees they need from the local area, and that would be kind of all of Baker County. Again, Sumpter with 210 people. Baker City, the county seat, has a 10,000 population, so about 60% of the county’s total population, and certainly has by far the largest amount of housing availability and land availability. So certainly, the employees would most likely have to live in Baker City or nearby.
But as far as skills go, the mining company officials believe that people with experience running heavy equipment, people who may have worked on ranches or farms, that sort of thing, could easily be retrained to do the specific work in the mine. So they’re not anticipating that these are jobs that would require particular, specific and rare kind of skills.
Miller: I’m curious about what you’re saying earlier that among some Sumpter residents, there is some level of excitement, but what you heard I guess from a number of people, is some level of great, but I’ll believe it when I see it. How many other mining operations or would-be mining operators over the last few decades have said we’ll do something similar?
Jacoby: Yeah, I don’t believe there’s been a formal proposal with an application with DOGAMI to this extent. It’s, as I said, been primarily exploratory work, and there was a considerable amount of work done, as I said, in the early ‘80s. Some of the old state reports I’ve read estimate that hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars was spent on some drilling and that sort of thing, but no actual production of gold and silver. And I think there have been, probably some of this is conversations that people have had in taverns and things about, well, I’d like to do this, and this could be done. But as far as formal proposals, going through the regulatory process, this is certainly, I think, without any doubt the biggest that’s happened since the mines were closed down at the start of World War II.
Miller: What have you been able to learn about the potential environmental impacts of the new mining operation plans?
Jacoby: Yeah, so definitely the company has emphasized that their plan is to do some level of processing of the ore at the mining sites, but not the final processing, the smelting that essentially separates the gold and silver from the ore, the processes that involve cyanide and other chemicals, that would be done elsewhere, they said, possibly in Nevada, possibly in another location. So, their hope is that because they’re not planning to use those more potentially environmentally damaging processes at the mine site here in Baker County, that their state permitting will go quicker than it might otherwise. It’s not like, for instance, the Grassy Mountain mining project in Malheur County is a very different kind of project.
Miller: And it seems like from your conversations with local residents, environmental concerns, they didn’t come up much. It was more about traffic, for example?
Jacoby: No, I think there is definitely concern about environmental effects. So, the main stream that runs through that area is Cracker Creek, and it is a backup water supply source for the city of Sumpter. I think there’s always concern about certainly municipal water supplies. The company officials are emphasizing that they don’t intend to have any effect on water quality. And again, the work that they’re doing will be underground. It’s not going to be on the surface.
Miller: And what about access to this land? This, I guess, is private land to begin with. So has there even been public activity on this land?
Jacoby: Right, yeah, all the proposed mining would be on what they call patented mining claims, which is, as you said, private land. It was patented many, many decades ago. Interestingly, although it is private land, most of it and maybe none of it is marked as far as no trespassing. The owners, it’s actually a company from Southern California who actually owns the property. The Wyoming company has an option to buy the property while they’re mining it or after. But there’s been no real restrictions.
There are a lot of ATV roads and things through the area because it’s surrounded by national forest land. And the company owners say that they have no intention of restricting access to the public except as required while they’re actually working for safety reasons, and they’re actually hoping to improve some of the roads. So long term, at least, they’re projecting that the access would, if anything, be improved and certainly not reduced.
Miller: Finally, what’s the potential timeline here?
Jacoby: That’s a good question. DOGAMI has not given any projections about when they may, if they get final approval and that would be. I know from talking to the company officials, it could be a year, it could be a few years, and of course, they’re hoping it will be sooner rather than later.
Miller: Jayson, thanks very much.
Jacoby: You’re welcome.
Miller: Jayson Jacoby is the editor of the Baker City Herald.
“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.
