Mining jobs lostIdarado Mining Co, will reduce employment by about 1/3 over the next 4 to 6 weeks, it was announced. The company is reducing production due to a continuing depressed demand and prices for metals, particularly lead, zinc, and copper. Total employment will be reduced from 375 to approximately 250 by the first of April.
Town fears damAbout 700 people gathered in Placerville on March 8 for a meeting sponsored by the San Miguel Water Conservancy board and other officials. The key concern of local citizens was the question of the possibility of the town being put under water by the San Miguel Project. Some of the original plans for the dam that would provide the necessary water for the project would flood the town. One ironic fact of the project is that the people of Placerville do not fall in the boundaries of the conservancy district so would not have a vote on the final resolution of the project.
Uranium mining spikesMonticello county recorder stated that the county “has had the biggest winter activity in uranium exploration they’ve ever had in history,” and notes that one major company recorded 1,800 20-acre locations in a single day last year. County commissioner Calvin Black said the boom of the 50’s was mostly prospectors, small operators and promoters. This time mining companies are acquiring the prospectors’ claims by lease and purchase and are doing the work with as little fanfare and publicity as possible.
