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| 10/22/2009 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Mine would bring much-needed jobs to Rico
$20 million annually for three generations is a powerful lure for Dolores County
Kimberly Benedict
Journal Staff Writer
While the United States attempts to maneuver its way out of recession, Dolores County finds itself in a familiar position: too few jobs, too little industry, communities struggling to stay afloat.
The county currently is experiencing an unemployment rate of 13.2 percent, the highest in the state, and the economic promise of an undeveloped resource is enticing.
Mark Levin, of Outlook Resources, firmly believes that molybdenum could be the answer to the economic woes of the area.
"Three generations could make a living off of this project," Levin said. "There is the possibility of the creation of 200-300 new jobs and a $15 to $20 million annual payroll."
Those are large numbers for a community whose economy is tied to historically shifting markets such as agriculture, construction and tourism.
Rico's economic picture can be hard to define. Telluride, located in San Miguel County, offers commuters higher-paying jobs than they often find at home, but the jobs come at a price.
"Even though Rico looks prosperous because of the type of employment and income the people have, it's because they are commuting to another county," said Jennifer Stark, in a speech given in 2008 to the National Summit of Mining Communities. "It is not bringing economic prosperity to our own community."
A 2006 survey taken of 83 residents in Rico, the full-time population of which hovers somewhere around 200, showed the largest income sectors - construction and professional occupations - primarily occur outside the Dolores County and therefore offer no stable tax resource.
It is a problem Rico has tried to address in the past.
When the railroad was decommissioned in 1952, local communities responded by creating the Galloping Goose, a rail bus system designed recapture some of the economic prosperity of the early 1900s. For the most part, the plan was a dismal failure.
"Rico put everything they had into mining," Stark said. "When the mining dropped, then you would get ridiculous ideas like (the Galloping Goose) trying to sustain some sort of creative economy. It really teaches us that when you don't diversify the way in which your economy grows, you can put yourself in a dangerous situation."
But economic diversification has been hard to come by, and the empty storefronts on Main Street testify to the cycle Rico has lived many times.
"Rico needs something," said Laurie Merrick, Rico town librarian. "If it (a molybdenum mine) brings jobs to the community and people wanting to be here more, it would be great."
The possibilities offered by molybdenum mining are immense. A closer examination of the economy surrounding the Henderson molybdenum mine in Clear Creek County, Colo., offers a look at the influx of capital a mine could provide.
According to Diane Settle, Clear Creek county assessor, the net property tax revenue in 2009 was $16,565,902 - of which Henderson contributed $9,783,975. In other words, the Henderson molybdenum mining operations alone accounts for 59 per cent of the tax base in Clear Creek County.
Assuming a molybdenum operation based in Dolores County would be similar in scope and size, the project could quadruple the county's revenue, which stood at $3,337,575 for the 2008 tax year.
"The impact (of a mine) would be immense," said Mike Thompson, an economic geologist and co-owner of Grayling Environmental, based in Cortez. "It would by far be the largest contributor to Dolores County."
Of course, mining is an industry in flux, and communities are wary of large shifts in the market.
"We have a 10-year averaging system (in the tax structure)," said Clear Creek's Settle. "We average 10 years worth of production value so we don't get that sharp up and down."
As well as increasing the tax base, the prospect of new industry brings with it the benefit of new jobs.
"It would create primary jobs," said Thompson. "But it would also create secondary jobs in construction and management. Surface jobs, for sure, would be pretty substantial."
According to the Colorado Mining Association, miners are the highest-paid industrial workers in Colorado. Annual wages in the mining industry were $98,250 in 2008 - roughly double the average wage earned in the private sector.
However, there is historic distrust on the part of Rico when it comes to the idea that long-term economic prosperity can be gained through the mining industry. It is a distrust built through years of disappointment.
"When mining comes and goes, it costs them (communities) more than they get out of it," said Nora Belasco-Lesem, a Rico resident.
Craig Spillman, a resident of the town and a veteran of the mining industry, agrees.
"I've seen what the cyclical process does to communities first hand," Spillman said. "Families are torn apart."
The cycle of boom and bust that so often accompanies mining is not relegated to mining past. Clear Creek County currently finds itself preparing for a future without the Henderson mine, which some say may play out within 20 years.
Settle said her county has begun to make plans to live without the income derived from Henderson, but it is not an easy process.
"It's hard to replace revenue that is coming in," she said.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economic outlook for the mining industry is a mixed bag.
In 2006, the bureau reported that while job prospects in most mining occupations will remain strong, overall employment will decrease as advancements in technology replace workers. Additionally, wages in the industry are expected to decline by two percent by 2016.
Overall, there is no doubt that the economy of Dolores County and the surrounding area would be impacted by the development of a molybdenum mine in Rico. The questions that remain focus on whether the development would provide long-term stable growth for the region or would be another example of the cyclical failure recorded in mining history and lived by the community of Rico.
This is the second set of stories in a four-issue package on a proposed molybdenum mining operation near Rico. In Saturday's edition: local government, regulatory agencies and the "right to mine."
Reach Kimberly Benedict at kimberlyb@cortezjournal.com.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009
Article comment by:
John Anderson
AS A DEVELOPER IN CORTEZ THIS TYPE OF INDUSTRY SHOULD BE WELCOME WITH OPEN ARMS. ANY TYPE OF JOB CREATION IS GOOD FOR OUR COMMUNTIES. CORTEZ SURELY WOULD BEBEFIT FROM A PROJECT LIKE THIS WITH MORE AFFORDABLE LAND AND HOUSING THAN IN THE RICO AREA. IN THIS CURRENT ECONOMY WE NEED TO LOOK AT ALL POSSIBLE MEANS OF EMPLOYMENT NOW TO HELP GET US ALL BACK ON OUR FEET. WITH THE RIGHT PLANNING ANY FUTURE DOWNSIDE CAN BE DELT WITH TO MINIMIZE ITS EFFECTS BUT WE NEED NOT ANYLIZE IT TO DEATH PEOPLE NEED TO WORK RIGHT NOW. WE CAN LEARN FROM OTHER COMMUNITIES AND BENNEFIT FROM THEIR KNOWLEDGE.
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