Published: June 17, 2020 |

Officials of a mining company shared plans with the Malheur County Court on Wednesday to reopen the DeLamar mine in Idaho, about 30 miles east of Jordan Valley. It opens up the possibility of an economic boon to that community, about 22 years after the mine was closed by the previous owner in 1998.

Closure of the mine came with falling gold prices, down to around $742 an ounce. Those prices are now up around $1,700 an ounce according to Tim Arnold, chief operating officer of Integra Resources. That company purchased the DeLamar Project in 2017 from a subsidiary of Kinross. The project is in preliminary baseline environmental baseline studies in the permit application process.

“Kinross had a robust project,” Tim Arnold, Integra chief operating officer said.

It will be three to four years to get into construction, if a permit is approved, he said, and five to get into production, using a heap leech process.

Current estimates have the mine producing 125,000 ounces of gold for at least 10 years, Arnold said, and production could possibly be pushed out to 20 to 30 years.

“This is a robust project,” he said.

The company expects to spend an estimated $200 million to get its operation started.

The company projects there will be 300 jobs at the mine with salaries ranging from $50,000 to $100,000, he said, not counting construction jobs. Truck driving jobs will bring about $20 to $25 an hour.

While it is expected that some mine employees would live in the Jordan Valley area, others will commute from places, such as Marsing or Nampa.

“DeLamar has a lot of life left over,” Mark Stockton, director of corporate development, with Integra said, calling its resource a “world class deposit.”

In addition, the company officials said they plan to be involved in the community, including schools and are excited about providing jobs for local people.

Source: Argus Observer

To stop by Integra’s website, CLICK HERE

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