opportunity or what?, page-3

all seems to be on track according to this Peppie...

http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/06/28/oregon-mining-facility-boosts-jobs/

Oregon mining facility boosts jobs
POSTED: Monday, June 28, 2010 at 03:32 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork
Tags: mining, Oregon Coast, Oregon Resources Corporation

Employees of the Coos Bay-based West Coast Contractors work on the foundation of a new $45 million processing facility in Coos Bay. The facility will separate chromite from sand mined off a beach just south of Coos Bay. (Photo courtesy of Oregon Resources Corp.)
Saddled with a 13 percent unemployment figure and an economy based mainly on commercial fishing, logging and tourism, Coos County has been hit hard by the recession. But a $45 million capital investment by an Australian company looking to be the first miner of chromite in the U.S. could prove to be just the boost the county needs.

Oregon Resources Corporation is an Oregon-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Australian mining company, Industrial Minerals Corp. The company spent the past three years working to start mining chromite, used in the manufacturing of steel castings, in the sands of the beach at Seven Devils state park, located 15 miles south of Coos Bay. While the mine will create 70 full-time jobs once it opens, its already providing a boost for the areas construction and transportation companies.

Coos Bay-based West Coast Contractors started work earlier this year as the general contractor on a $45 million processing facility thats built on a 17-acre Coos Bay site that Oregon Resources is leasing from the property owner, Weyerhaeuser. There is also a handful of local subcontractors on the project handling surveying, electrical work and concrete transportation.

David Kronsteiner, president of West Coast Contractors, said his company currently has 20 workers on site doing the foundation work that so far has included 8,000-yards of concrete and 530 pilings. The number of workers on the site is expected to hit 140 when the actual processing facility begins construction next month. And thats the just start of the economic benefit from the mining operation, according to Kronsteiner.

This wont just be 70 jobs, it will be 70 well-paying jobs in town, he said. This will help Coos County develop a more diverse workforce while also helping out the construction industry and transportation services.

The mining operation will dig up 20 to 40 acres of sand annually at the Seven Devils beach. The sand will then be trucked 15 miles to a new processing facility in Coos Bay. Chromite, and possibly zircon and garnet, will be extracted from the sand at the facility. The non-mineralized sand will then be transported back to the original site.


The Oregon Resource Corp. project has been a big boost for the construction industry in the surrounding area. West Coast Contractors, the general contractor on the project, currently has 20 employees working on the foundation of the project. The company will have up to 140 employees on site when the facility starts coming out of the ground next month. (Photo courtesy of Oregon Resources Corp.)
According to Cheryl Wilson, president of Oregon Resources, the company will also be contracting out the trucking services for transporting the material to an Oregon firm. That service is scheduled to go out for bid in the next few months.

The jobs that are created by this project are across the board, Wilson said. Anytime you have a completely new industry coming into an area from the ground up, it is going to have a large, positive economic impact.

Martin Callery, director of communication and freight mobility at the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, added that the mining operation will have a large impact on the ports operation.

We started the rehabilitation of the rail line last year, Callery said. While these minerals are used around the world, the mid-western states are the largest importers of it. Getting rail service to the middle of the country will be the key to the impact of this project.

Because the project will be the first chromite operation in the U.S., it received heavy scrutiny from environmentalist and government agencies. But the company has successfully navigated the permitting processes of Coos County, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of State Lands and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.

The permitting has been exhausted and the company has done everything they need to, said Gary Lynch, assistant director of regulation for DOGAMIs mineral lands regulation and reclamation office. But because of the uniqueness of the material that will be mined, all of the agencies will conduct monthly inspections on the site, which is an unprecedented inspection schedule.

The processing facility is slated for completion by the end of the year, and mining at the site will start in the first quarter of 2011.