Spokane convention a hit at 3,600 miners register

Just more than 3,600 registrants, including representatives from The Northern Miner, turned out for this year’s event which featured a short course on practical geophysics, well-attended technical sessions and a thriving trade show.

The theme this year was Mining’s Environment in the 1990s. Many of the technical sessions involved discussion on environmental issues and regulations that will affect mining in the next decade. But the sessions also

featured state and provincial reports of exploration trends and regional developments for most of northwestern North America. Canadian projects were well represented; the conference included talks on Continental Gold’s Mt. Milligan gold-copper deposit, Calpine Resources’ Eskay Creek deposit and Cominco Ltd.’s Tulsequah Chief massive sulphide deposit, among others.

Sessions on the exploration “hot spots” in the western U.S. also drew large audiences. These included talks on the Beartrack gold deposit near Salmon, Idaho, (Meridian Gold); the Kettle River and Overlook gold deposits in Washington State (Echo Bay/Crown Resources); the Rabbit Creek gold deposit in Nevada (Santa Fe Pacific Mining); and the Juneau gold belt in Alaska where a number of companies (including Echo Bay) are developing promising gold project s.

Sessions on massive sulphide deposits and precious metals in porphyry systems, along with talks on industrial minerals projects, reflected the diversity of mineral projects being evaluated in Western Canada and the U.S.

A session on Southern Cordillera deposits in Chile reflected strong interest in the area by both Canadian and U.S. mining concerns. Participants included Placer Pacific, Cominco Resources International and LAC Minerals, to name but a few.

But the Northwest Mining Association also took the occasion to urge the mining industry to support initiatives on several key issues that threaten the future of the industry.

An “action alert” was called to support the association’s fight against the California Desert Protection Act which would remove the multi-use concept and lock up eight million acres of highly mineralized desert land.

On an even more serious note, the association is also strongly defending a movement to make changes to the Mining Law of 1872 which would remove basic rights that have allowed for mineral exploration and development on public lands. Of major concern is a proposed change by Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas calling for higher royalties.

According to David Delcour of Amax Mineral Resources, a massive royalty could take the small operator out of business.

“I don’t think the importance of small operators can be overlooked,” he said.

At the closing convention luncheon, Congressman Larry Craig of Idaho also called for support of the Mining Law of 1872.

“Many don’t understand the law and that it is as vital today as the day it was drafted,” Craig said.

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