It’s the news that old-timers in Leadville have been awaiting for years: Climax, the storied molybdenum mine atop Fremont Pass, is reopening.
Phelps Dodge Corp. announced Wednesday that the mine would resume production for the first time in more than a decade once the company upgrades facilities by 2009.
“That’s just great!” said Howard Tritz, the Lake County assessor and former miner who worked at Climax from the early 1950s until the mid-’90s.
The company estimates that the open-pit mine could produce up to 30 million pounds of molybdenum each year. Local observers believe the new operation could employ several hundred miners.
Molybdenum is a mineral used in alloys and industrial products.
“I know with a new mill, they’re not going to have as many people as they had up there in the heyday, but everything helps,” said Tritz, a fourth-generation Leadville miner. “Those are good-paying jobs with benefits.”
After Climax drew down production in the mid-1980s and shut its doors completely in 1995, the historic mining town where Colorado’s Gold Rush began spiraled into economic despair. Unemployment reached 80 percent, deep-rooted families left town and the tax base dwindled from a high of $258 million in 1981 to $44 million by 1987.
The move to reopen the mine – contingent on a new feasibility study, regulatory approval and the construction of a new concentrator estimated to cost as much as $250 million – is based on economics.
At $22.50 a pound, molybdenum prices are double what they were two years ago, according to industry figures. Prices reached a record $38.50 in June 2005, up from $6.25 in 2003.
“Phelps Dodge is committed to meeting the requirements of its customers, and we believe the Climax mine is the best non-operating molybdenum resource in the world,” company CEO J. Steven Whisler said in a statement.
Sam McGeorge, executive director of the National Mining Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, said Leadville has developed new economies, “but the addition of the mining is definitely a boost, and it’s something we take pride in.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
