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Leadville, Summitville and Mexico

SnowMass Mountain Lake, Colorado

The growing brouhaha in Leadville is beginning to look like a Fellini film – no, make that “Fargo” the movie. Competing television crews are on street corners hanging behind their reporters-on-assignment who are clutching their camel-hair full length overcoats to their chilly chins looking nervously over their shoulders for fear of avalanche, grizzlies, and the few toothless ruffians who comprise some of our colorful mountain character. These poor lost souls are wondering to themselves why they are not the star anchor person in the fancy suit with makeup and hairspray sitting comfortably in front of the video clip as opposed to being the roving reporter who has to drive up the pass in the van with the big extension-transmitter on top…

It’s a mad mad world up in Leadville right now. Don’t go unless, of course, you want to visit the National Mining Hall of Fame, which is a great stop on any day. You might see something today like a fire drill only it’ll be flood warning drill with tornado sirens (Leadville’s got tornado sirens???) Families are supposed to “evacuate in an orderly fashion”, which the locals (the ones who can read) only watch with amazing indifference to the spectacle while the non-English speaking population tries to quell the fear in their hearts and get a grip on what in the Heck is really happening around there… When is the mountain going to explode its gorge of polluted, toxic water steaming with isotopes of arsenic and mercury?

I’m gonna go to Mexico and log some core. True. I’ve had it with the journalists reporting on the potential of a mining disaster comparable to Summitville. What in the Heck does Summitville have to do with this? And why do people who have actually never seen Summitville let alone know what really went on there always ALWAYS yammer the word, S-U-M-M-I-T-V-I-L-L-E, like the mere utterance of this is going cause us miners to quake and crawl under the bed like bad dogs?

The first time I ever heard of Summitville was in grad school. Summitville was being taught in an economic geology program as what not to do. So was Butte, Montana. So was hydraulic wasting of river banks in the 1880’s. Summitville happened 24 years ago before we even had car seats for kids or recycling. My new retort: “Summitville is why we have mining regulations, you fool.” Try this on:

“Summitville catalyzed national debates about the environmental effects of modern mining activities, and became the focus of arguments for proposed revisions to the 1872 Mining Law governing mining activities on public lands. In early 1993, the State of Colorado, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Colorado State University, San Luis Valley agencies, downstream water users, private companies, and individuals began a multi-disciplinary research program to provide needed scientific information on Summitville’s environmental problems and downstream environmental effects. Detailed results of this multi-agency effort were presented, along with legal and policy issues, at the Summitville Forum in January, 1995, at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.” USGS Open File Report 95 – 23. “The Summitville Mine and its Downstream Effects.”

Thank you Summitville. You are a historic story with unexpected positive impact for the future. I am interested in how we mine today and how we will mine tomorrow.

Now, off to Mexico where they like mining.  Besides, if no one is logging core then what are we going to do with ourselves in corporate?

2008 02 26 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Potential Flooding in Leadville, Colorado

Arkansas River below Leadville, CO

There is an underground drainage tunnel in the Leadville historical mining district, Lake County, Colorado that has been determined to be in a state of immediate threat of flooding. This situation is due to obstruction by collapsed material over time and subsequent damming of both mine discharge and ground water. This obstruction has formed a debris dam of ponded water estimated to be one billion gallons and its failure could result in catastrophic consequences that have prompted Lake County officials to declare a state of emergency.

If this unstructured dam fails without a controlled release, a subsequent flood could result in destruction of residences and potentially contaminate the headwaters of the Arkansas River with untreated water, part of which is derived from mine drainage. This situation is being monitored by the US Bureau of Reclamation and local county governments. However, if the effluent discharge contaminates the river then the impact will be disastrous not only for the environment, habitat and community of that region, but a discharge of untreated water into the river system will also adversely impact Colorado Mining – an industry that is currently under review and attack from a growing anti-mining forum in the state.

The dam is a result of collapsed material in an underground tunnel, which was constructed by the Bureau of Mines to provide drainage of seepage from some of the underground mine workings. The US Department of Reclamation acquired responsibility for the tunnel in 1959 with the intent of including the drainage water as part of the supply for the Frying Pan-Arkansas Project – river drainage systems used for recreation and water supply. The water contained metals, which discharged into the East Fork of the Arkansas. To bring the discharge into compliance with the Clean Water Act, a water treatment plant was constructed in March of 1992. However, this plant is not engineered to accommodate the conditions of flooding that seem to be immanent.

Local media are portraying this situation in an electrifying manner on the real basis of potentially life-threatening flooding.

Recently, the Geological Society of America presented an academic analysis by geologist, Michael Holmes, from the E.P.A. of same tunnel and addressed the alarming state of this structure:

“Data from the mine pool from the past decade show ominous rising ground-water levels and suggest that the efficiency of the drainage tunnel is declining. ” — HOLMES, Michael, U.S.EPA Region VIII, 999 18th Street, Suite 500, Denver, CO 80202, holmes.michael@epa.gov

The potential for catastrophic flooding is definitely a threat albeit not as alarming as the Vail Daily purports as a, “pool of contaminated water trapped by the collapse in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel,” and, “toxic acid and metal-laden water.” Rather, the nature of the water is currently being diluted by the natural spring and run-off. “This catchment is at an altitude of more than 3,000 - 4300 meters a.s.l. and thus contains a significant portion of snow and ice that, until this summer, was essentially perennial.” — Michael Holmes. (For general information on ground water and hardrock mining: http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002AM/finalprogram/session_2770.htm)  Though the toxicity is likely not as lethal as the Vail Daily infers, the volume is a definite and serious threat.

“Ground seepage from increased snow levels is adding further pressure on the blockage,” said Polly White of the Colorado Division of Emergency Management.”

The threat of catastrophic flooding in this situation is very real. Failure of the underground dam threatens not only to flood the vicinity of Leadville but also contaminate the Arkansas River, which would be a terrible environmental disaster that you can bet the public will hold the mining industry liable though the mining industry neither built the tunnel, nor manages it. The tunnel is a Bureau of Reclamation project and their staff is addressing this situation, apparently under accusations by local community of waiting too long.

2008 02 15 Michele Murray Mining Comments (6) Permalink

Mining Matters: 110th National Western Mining Conference

Barbara Filas, President, Knight Piesold Consulting

 

The 110TH National Western Mining Conference and Exhibition was presented by the Colorado Mining Association in Denver this week and guess what they talked about? Here’s a clue: energy, mineral resources, China and India. Oh – and carbon constraints, too.

A fine talk by Vincent Matthews, State Geologist and Director of the Colorado Geological Survey, presented dolefully similar graphs to emphasize his point. Matthews showed a sequence of slides in rapid succession portraying first the exponential growth in a multitude of different commodities’ price trends (they all looked the same – a relatively flat line leading up to the current century and then a projected curve that radically zips off into topmost end of the slide for the next 20 years). He followed this barrage of projected price trends with another similar sequence in rapid succession of the growing rate of global consumption for specific resources – all described with a nearly monotone narration along the lines of, ‘Guess what, China likes coal, so does India…’ Then he overlaid the estimated reserve of these resources with the projected rate of consumption and guess what? The mining industry (actually the entire planet) does not have the reserves to meet the rate of global consumption as it is currently in progress.

That is the theme of our industry today.

I can’t help but think on all the new mountain bikes, cellular phones, digital high-resolution televisions, laptops, MP3 players, batteries, electrical wiring, housing structures and other consumables being sucked into the countries of our cohabitants on the other side of this planet as their populations attain the abilities to purchase their heart’s desire. In the meanwhile, on this side of the planet, our educated masses are shoulder-to-shoulder on green issues in agreement to constrain the mining industry from supplying the resources on the basis of an assumption: kill the mining so that the world won’t burn any carbon into the atmosphere anymore. It seems likely our well-intended advocates for global welfare don’t comprehend the scale of b.t.u consumption that is coming down the pipe. Well-intending people who push legislation through to impede mining are trying to address a situation, i.e. climatic changes or green house effects, that may in all likelihood  be unobtainable to start with.

Don Ewigleben (”Ewig” and “Leben” mean “eternal-life” in case you get hung up on this intriguing name), Executive Officer, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., South Africa and President & CEO, AngloGold Ashanti N.A., Inc., spoke on Price and Production versus Supply; Law / Regulations and NGOs; Health, Environment, and Safety (Anglo and CMA were honoring a grader driver in Cripple Creek, Kenny Rankin, who worked 23 years without a lost time accident!) Mr. Ewigleben briefly mentioned a topic that spoke to my heart: how good it is to be home in the United States after working abroad. His statement seemed to stop at unspoken thoughts on that particular topic as if reflecting more to the story, things like appreciating paved roads and painted lines that actually control traffic as oppose to death-defying anarchy on the roads in other countries – appreciation of American way of life, our luxuries, freedoms, humor, peccadilloes. He had just returned to the US after a bit of a hiatus working in Jo-berg.

A handy quote came from Mark Smith, President & CEO of Chevron Mining, Inc., “Yesterday’s technology should not be the future.” By that, he was embracing a safer, cleaner, greener vision for mining. (Yay)

“We need EVERY form of energy,” Mr. Smith said. “We need coal, oil, gas – this is an economic reality. We also need wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, and biomass sources of energy.”

He was referring to a report by the National Petroleum Council – an Oil and Natural Gas Advisory Committee appointed to the Secretary of Energy. This report, “HARD TRUTHS – Facing the Hard Truths About Energy,” is rather dour. Mr. Smith provided some incredible statistics from this report along the lines of a 60% increase in energy demand by 2030 and 40,000 gallons of fuel currently being consumed every SECOND to maintain each person right now!! I mean RIGHT NOW as you read. Glub glub glub….

Even under socially prescribed or legally regulated constraints to limit mining, even under the hypothetical control of global consumption (which I personally doubt can be obtained just look at treaties and sanctions imposed by the international communities to try an uphold human rights, endangered species protection, saving the rain forest, etc., etc.) – even under the lowest projected economic growth scenario — the world will still experience a 50% increase in CO2 production by the year 2030. People want electricity and cars. These things make CO2. Mining supplies the material. Civilization burns it.

What to do? Well, if you are in the mining business, you prepare to operate under stricter strictness of constricting regulations. That makes the price go up and that is the business. You don’t close up shop – you charge more for your product. You can either stay in mining under these circumstances, or you can go to work for a more idealistic industry, like, say – skiing! The ski industry, which despite taking up many thousands of acres of prime public land for say, unlimited time-frame and absolutely zippo environmental impact evaluation — let alone remediation — is highly popular amongst the exact same people (wealthy, affluent Americans) who hate the mining industry – an industry that supplies the material to make these luxuries possible.

The photo, above, is Barbara Filas, President of Knight Piesold Consulting and Chairperson of 110thNational Western Mining Conference. She received this award (little pewter miner guy) to recognize her contribution to organizing the conference. (I couldn’t catch a picture of Judy Colgan — integral staff person — the images were a blur of motion…)

2008 02 14 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Historical Mining District Access

Blanche Barton’s cabin, Cripple Creek, Colorado

Denver Mining Club hosted a pictorial essay by Dr. Daniel Harrison, “Photo Tour of Colorado Mining History – When Mining Was King of the Mountain.” After all the technical talks that have recently been presented at the meetings, (uranium metallurgy, in-situ uranium mining, Henderson / Climax Mine), it was nice to view and appreciate the beautiful imagery of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain High in many familiar settings — but with the additional benefit of historical mining.

I used to write for Mountain Gazette. They published my stories for seven years. Last Christmas, the new publisher of MG published a full-page ad with a vehemently strong anti-mining message. As a result, MG and MM diverged paths. Fortunately, Jack Caldwell and Michael McCrae, (InfoMine staff) helped me create a blog for a new outlet.

However, the task of both living and recreating in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains AND working in the mining industry in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains is often so controversial to the mainstream of backpacking, river kayaking, telemark skiing, fly fishing non-miners, that I avoid writing on the topic of mining. This issue has been cropping up to the point I can’t avoid it any longer. I too backpack, hike, kayak, telemark ski, snowshoe, mountain bike, fly fish and live in the mountains. However, I love mining. That said, Dan Harrison’s photo essay reminded me of an article in Mountain Gazette by Brendan Leonard that mentions legend Colorado miner, Maury Reiber and other mining men on the topic of public access. The article brings some points of contention to the surface but not in an acrid tone of voice. What is missing from the article is the historic context of the district and why Maury bought the Present Help silver mine at the top of 14,286-foot Mount Lincoln in the first place.

A historic mining district is not only a dangerous place for unaware adventurers – but the artifacts are also in danger of being pilfered or damaged. Dan Harrison’s photo essay captures many buildings, head-frames, boilers, hoist-pulleys that no longer exist – have collapsed or were removed. One of the most significant aspects of the photo tour was the beauty of seeing these artifacts in place and realizing the elevation is over 10,000 feet above sea level in some cases above 12,000 feet. Historic mine camps emanate the fascinating spirit of pioneering people. They didn’t have Patagonia Capilene-4 thermo-insulate underwear, no NorthFace fleece, not even a thermally dynamic coffee mug. In dire circumstances, these miners lived and worked under very adverse conditions in clap-board cabins and mills.

 Perhaps our Rocky Mountain hikers, standing there with self-preservation gear and the necessary accoutrement for accessing these areas also appreciate the history and are moved in respect for the amazing feats of human endeavor in historic mine workings? Perhaps, a Rocky Mountain backpacker would feel a sincere reverence to sit next to Maury Reiber himself, or his partner, Ben L. Wright, Jr. — aged 85, (both of whom move me), especially as the slides showed historic mines sites that brought murmurs and stirring in the room full of men who have devoted their lives to preserving and possibly utilizing these historic sites again one day should their legs ever carry them one more time up the mountain.

In any case, it is extremely dangerous to hike in a historic mining district. That said, I bet any of these mining men (including Maury) would be delighted to show their properties or share their heritage with those who sincerely appreciate the mining aspect of the district. Heads-up — if you venture to share an anti-mining point of view with one of these seasoned professionals, you will likely be educated beyond your expectations.

2008 02 05 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Investing in 2008

75′ single-wide trailer near Cripple Creek.

The Bull & Bear Financial Report arrived at someone else’s office this week and I borrowed it. Headline: “How Would You Invest $10,000 in 2008?”

‘Hmm,’ I thought to myself. ‘That’s a really good question.’

My first conscious answer to myself was, ‘I don’t think I would invest in any more upstart mining companies or junior ventures EVER AGAIN (if you go on how well my stock choices have done for me lately….) If I were to start from scratch, I think I would invest in plastic receptacles, or telepathic pet doctors, or water mitigation software – anything but mining.’

The reality of this question is that $10K is not enough money. If you want to see an impact from making the right decision at the right time, then you really need to start with, say, $100K – or, a quarter of a million would be better. And if it is in mining – then you are really going to need a couple to 6 million dollars U.S. to realize enough out come that will actually contribute to your financial abilities. By that, I mean $250 scrawny dollars profit is not going to make a difference in what steps you take next, whereas $2,500 profit overnight is something you can turn into more money.

Real estate. That’s an industry that never goes away. If the market is bad, you sit on it. Forget about it. Stick a couple of trailers out there and become a slumlord. That’s my retirement plan.

“HAY! Where’s my money? You’re late! Rent was due yesterday! That’s ten dollars EXTRA for every day late! Keep your kids off my lawn!” (That is if I haven’t retired to the Montana State Mental Hospital – a lovely venue across the road from a riparian habitat at the headwaters of the Clark Fork River… ahhh. Lovely.

$10K to invest in 2008? Hmmm, in my experience if you go to a booth where exploration guys are sitting in the trade shows and find the ones who are drilling, there is likely going to be a press release soon to follow. So, I go to trade shows, find the booths with exploration guys, and I ask them if they are drilling. If they aren’t, then I ask them if they will be and when? Same goes for major projects, such as say, a bio-ox treatment plant or a new metallurgical loop, or a new plant going in. I ask when it will be done. Then, I keep track of their status in a book by reviewing their websites. When they make a positive announcement, their stock usually goes up.

So, to answer Bull & Bear Financial Report’s question, if I had $10K to invest in 2008, no matter what came along, my best bet is to stick with something I know best: mining. And, it is a good idea to take notes, keep track of what exploration and mining companies are planning and doing, and never underestimate the potential of a 75’ single-wide trailer set in the path of progress on a $10K-an-acre lot. Now, I think I may utilize the B&B report for its B.T.U. potential in my stove. B-r-r-r-r.

2008 01 24 Michele Murray Mining Comments (2) Permalink

Sustainability Issues in Mining

Silk worms provided by Golden Star Resources

Last Monday, the Denver Mining Club had a guest speaker, Maureen Upton, a consultant for Resource Initiatives, LLC. Her talk was on “Sustainability Issues in Mining.” My interest was triggered because I worked at Kennecott Greens Creek Mine, on Admiralty Island near Juneau, Alaska when they were completing procedures to comply with an ISO 14000. I also worked for Golden Star Resources, LTD and witnessed their investment of money, human-endeavor, and materials to provide sustainable economic means to the local communities in their area of interest along the Ashanti Gold trend in West Ghana. I am familiar with the tremendous effort a mining company initiates to provide sustainability at their operations. However, until Maureen’s talk, I had no idea the number of sustainable doctrines that are out there let alone the nature of these ideals.

The guys at the Denver Mining Club sometimes fixate on a particular facet of some other topic unrelated to the talk — and I love that about this club. Their digressions are both interesting and amusing. They become riled up and are not necessarily politically correct. Sometimes, they seem to forget the women in the room. Vocabulary and topics can get vulgar. If you let them go on, they might denounce or eviscerate or harangue organizations until you can see spittle in the corner of their frothing mouths. Well, maybe not that intensely but certainly with heart-felt conviction. Their articulated opinions are usually right on, except for not keeping on topic with the speaker (one time some of them voiced the opinion that women are bad luck underground, which if I were trapped alive with them, that might be bad luck indeed…)

Thus, I felt Maureen might have been surprised when at the end of her talk some of the members began yammering about cyanide and who in the heck came up with the idea that cyanide is so dangerous that it has to be banned and do you know how many people died of cyanide in the US last year – only guys on death row and people who think cyanide is polluting the environment need to take a look where their electricity comes from… Maureen was pinned by her foot to the floor. She maintained a look of professional composure but I could sense she might be thinking, ‘How in the heck did they come up with – she was there to take the cyanide away?’

Eventually, the talk came around to sustainability and why she was there. What I got out of it was probably a bit more than even Maureen intended — that is in large corporations there are many departments auxiliary to actually getting the resource out of the ground – departments for PR, departments for HR, departments for SOX (Sarbannes Oxley litigation), etc. Now, I see a future department of Sustainability. All those persons, paperwork, filing cabinets, computers and office space go into the price of bringing the resource to market.

Sustainability: it’s here to stay. Sustainability is a code of ethics for operating within logical, humane, environmentally conscientious bounds – codes that are put together by thoughtful organizations all over the world — AND — sustainability costs money. It costs money to operate within those globally friendly boundaries. So be it… if that’s the future of modern mining, then we have to go there.

2008 01 17 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Data Conversion and Tar Pits

La Brea Tar pits of data conversion, by Michele Murray 

I know what it feels like to be dead yet still alive like a wraith, or to be caught in a tar pit like a giant sloth. I feel that way in the middle of big, long, drawn out data conversion projects. Your eyes get all dry and swollen. You’re dessicated. The sun beats down on your lifeless body and you can’t feel your extremeties anymore except for a feint buzzing around the edges of your synapse where your legs used to be. The digital files have been abbreviated with cryptic names like CRTI.N06_22.ysd representing places and software that don’t exist anymore in years so far gone that the drill pads are invisible even to remote sensing probes. I can’t leave my workstation overnight because my computer needs me. I have to keep my head stuck in the machine like an iron lung and keep stoking the fires that make the innards run. I am converting drilled core data to digital format from pages that date back to days of papyrus, which was supposed to be an improvement over clay tablets but the clay tablets have a longer shelf life, something like 10,000 years…

Maybe someone will come in my office and pull this computer off my head - an intervention to save me. They might think I’m on crack but it’s actually only a DOS program. Somewhere in this mechanism little switches are reading strings of 0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,1 that are supposed to mean something like smoke signals across the valley floor to pioneers wondering what in the Hell those Indians were up to… I don’t write code, though I have been forced to do that in the past in order to save the mine. Writing code requires great concentration. I prefer to pretend I have no idea what they are talking about so I don’t have to do it… One job (not for my company - for a software company that has since disappeared deep into the tar pit about a decade ago) the data guru and I wore tin-foil hats molded to our heads to try and keep the flow of concentration focused on the issue at hand. Two people writing code, shoulder to shoulder in a crunch to make the deadline is a crazy place to be. You really have to be plugged into each other’s mainframe and keep a syncopated beat going between the user interface and the database. Beta-testing, it’s a mad mad world…

Data has come back to haunt me 10 years later and multiple companies later after I’d collected it. Sometimes, it’s been renamed or compiled or even colored differently. I suspect some versions may have been pirated from Scandinavian or Mexican or Asian or Pan American sources, but it is definitely the same data. I am quite sure of that. I recognize it immediately. I am a surgeon, dabbling in the viscera of a dinosaur from the past. Surreal. I have become a data guru with lines in my face. Back then, I was an ambitious eager core-logging kid and the target was only a prospect yet to be drilled out.

2008 01 09 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink

Penguins in Colorado

Victor Penguin Hockey Club float, Victor, Colorado

In a message dated 1/5/2008 10:13:16 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, (a friend of mine)@yahoo.com writes:

“Some of you feel guilty about not putting in the effort of maintenance down at the rink. For those of us that do put in the effort — we WANT you to feel guilty. But you can atone for such blatant disregard for the efforts of the few, the proud. Some people propose to buy our love and — it’s for sale. Reach in those pockets and donate to the Penguins! CC&V employees can get matching funds from CC&V! So, you could conceivably get twice the love. It takes over 30 hours per week to properly maintain the ice and we’re just volunteers. Nobody is getting paid. If it snows, then it takes us considerably more time to get the rink ready. If you can’t help physically, then help monetarily. Make the checks out to Victor Penguins (or you can slip me a fin or two). It can be a pretty lonely ice floe out there…

Gary Horton
Environmental Coordinator
AngloGold Ashanti (Colorado) Corp. “

That is a message from the President of the Victor Penguin Hockey Club to fellow Penguins. Victor, Colorado has a man-made (made by men we know) outdoors ice rink. It’s not regulation size and until they worked the quirks out, it was lumpy and bumpy as any open lot flooded by a fire hydrant hose in the winter would be.

They tried to get grants. They tried to get a roof (currently, they hang agricultural irrigation netting from cables across the rink to keep shade on the premise as long as possible.) For a while, certain locals and even the MAYOR were totally against the rink mostly because people don’t like change, don’t like dogs or kids and mostly, don’t like to be left out. Brian Hayes, a life-long underground miner who raised his family and now grandkids by working underground first in Leadville and then in Victor (he and Gary were miners at the Ajax Mine until it closed in 1985. Now, Brian works underground at the Gold States Mine on Tenderfoot Hill in Cripple Creek. Most people think CC&V - Anglo - is the only mine operating in the district, which it is not….) Brian Hayes (for whom the rink is named: “Brian’s Park”) fought battles against city hall (literally) until they also got behind the growing momentum to support and utilize the facility for citywide youth recreation.

Victor Penguins Hockey Club is for the local kids. No one has to pay, which is a good thing because the kids in Victor are, well, a wee-bit out of the mainstream. There’s not much to do for wholesome goodness if you’re a kid in Victor. The Penguins Hockey Club provides skates, gear, hot dogs and most importantly - something to do. You just show up.

Eventually, this loose affiliation of miners, kids, wives and other denizens of Victor became endorsed by the City of Victor with Mayor Serena Bielz. All of the sudden Penguins were selling T-shirts and hoodies at Donkey Derby and Gold Rush Days. I made a digital logo for them out of a nearly pirated hand-drawn version handed to me on a folded piece of paper. It was unique enough not to get sued by the professional Penguins. Just to be sure I tweaked it a little more.

At the end of winter Penguins have to take the nets down and at end of summer Penguins put them back up. It’s a major pain-in-the-ass task - ladders, scaffolding, ratchets and nuts-n-bolts, ladies and kids sewing up the big ragged holes with thick line and fat needles. I think Gary’s email list includes nagging about 80 people who are in some way, a Penguin or at the least — a Penguin fan.

In another email Gary writes,

“I need to change Nets Day to May 6th instead of the 5th. The annual Down Phantom - Up Shelf Road Race is the 5th. It’s a 66-mile bike ride loop on the Gold Belt Tour. We’ll have transportation in Canon City if folks just want to do the Down Phantom section and sag support for the Up Shelf portion. No one will die and the downhill is fun. Let me know who’s interested!!”

(*NOTE: Phantom is a narrow dirt road that used to be a narrow-gauge railroad bed from Cripple Creek historic mining district to the smelters in Florence and Canon City. Shelf road is another one of these narrow-gauge railroad beds turned roadway in parallel canyons that many of today’s miners in Cripple Creek commute daily. It is a precarious but spectacularly beautiful drive any time of year.)

Another missive:

“Required Bored Meeting 6/7/07 at Brian’s House. 5:30 a.m.
“Agenda:
501c3 is done and ready for submittal
Those on the board that want to bail before that need to speak up and be replaced
Election of Ron Shutts president (just kidding)
Donkey Derby Days booths
Meeting limited to 1 hour so new topics need to be brief and to the point (cuz I’m president and don’t like long meetings)
If you have concerns and you can’t make it email me and I will respond.
(Just kidding about the am time — it’s really p.m.)
– Gary Horton”

Bison Reservoir is also nearby. Sometimes the Penguins go to Bison for fishing and sometimes the Penguins go to Donkey Days for hoodies… sometimes a Penguin catches a trout at Bison after having a hot dog at Donkey days… Sometimes Gary addresses the clan as “Penguin Nation”…and of course, there are peewee Penguins, also.

Every year, the Penguins have an auction to raise funds. We often buy hundreds of dollars worth of whirly-gigs, T-shirts, bar mirrors, household stuff, and restaurant coupons. The auction is always at “Ralf’s” which is a bar that serves Rosemary’s Pizza - Rosemary is Brian Haye’s wife (and another Penguin…)

I don’t know if I am a Penguin or not because there is a loose class of actual teams, one of which has jerseys. There is a “cup” (The Victor Cup), which is a tin miners cup that used to belong to Brian. It’s nailed to a board. Victor Cup Days is the only day they keep score. Mostly, though, anyone can come and skate. There is a shed full of used skates, pads, helmets and sticks. I own my own equipment and have “played” a couple of times (if that’s what you call skating around in a stiff posture with a stick in hand trying to get in people’s way…) Maybe I’m a semi-Penguin, having once made a goal and once skated at high-velocity face-first into the equally momentum-propelled Exploration Manager, Tim Brown. I would be dead for that if I weren’t wearing a helmet. The sound of the concussion brought people running to see what happened. I also wear my horses’ ankle guards on my elbows.

It’s all about the kids. And mining. And community in a little old, historic mining town in the mountains: Victor Penguins.

2008 01 07 Michele Murray Mining Comments (1) Permalink

New Year’s Day (or after)

Headframe in Wassa, Ghana by Phillip Mostert

It’s a tough time of year. The Earth keeps rolling around on Her axis while the bears sleep and stars burn in exothermal reactions to light up the universe, and the people look at their calendars and review their bad habits from under their pillows at mines all over the world and wonder to themselves if they have enough time to fulfil their life’s ambitions?

It is New Year’s Day (or the 3rd actually) and geos are either on their way to or from temporary jobs they hoped would pay a lot more money and provide some personal satisfaction along the lines of exotic change of scenery. Drillers start up their cold pick-up trucks and muckers hang their civies in baskets from the top of the dry to put on diggers. Bills sit unsorted at home in piles of neglected anger. Cats and dogs lick their feet on the couch. Some people have cell phones buzzing already in their pockets bringing them news of opportunities yet to see the light of day.

It’s 2008, and no one knows where the world is going, or the price of gold, or moly, or uranium and Etrade may or may not pay. But, that is the mining industry and shovels will dig, and powder will blast and buckets will get filled with rock, mud, slurry, pitch, brine, ore and waste on the surface of this planet and underground. Meanwhile, I need to get cracking…

2008 01 03 Michele Murray Mining Comments (2) Permalink

The Sock Puppet of Cotes d’Ivoire

Sock Puppet Weapon

“Ivory Coast’s disarmament begins”

Rebels and government forces in Ivory Coast have begun the process of disarmament more than five years after the country descended into violence.

The man who sent this article to me is an attorney who specializes in mining matters in such interesting places as Togo, Nigeria, Niger, Waggi (Ouagadougou to you), Winnipeg, and La Côte d’Ivoire, which is where I met him. He sent this article to me as fodder to see what I would do with it. He knows that I can read between the lines of compiled facts.

For example, I know that within one region of Africa, people might be sipping on frappe or cappuccino and in the same region, persons might me strapping flattened plastic litter bottles to their feet to use as footwear. Between many of the regions, there are also big camo-military guys with AK-47s and you must get used to this if you are to go, say, to the beach or visit your friend, or teach cartography in Abidjan. The world isn’t such a crazy place but the people in it are a little whacky.

I call this man Brawk, because he was once duped by a chicken murmuring his name, but that is another story…

The people in Cotes d’Ivoire were colonialized by the French and that saveur d’française remains in the culture, though the love of French guys is way long gone. That might be because the French remain on the premise despite the country’s independence. The French are “seemingly” (hey - I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em. It looks like something we - -the United States — would do. Not nice French guys…) unofficially occupying Cotes d’Ivoire (observation: the French military are there), which I personally don’t mind but the Ivoirians do. That, and the French army bombed the entire CDI airforce — which was only one aircraft sans pilot - but the Ivoirians were planning on getting a pilot really soon (on the top of their “must-do” list) right before the French went and blew the plane up. There was (probably still is) a black hole in the runway of the airport when I was there, where the CDI had parked their “airforce”.

The reason the Chicken-Whisperer sent this article to me was because I once saved our lives with a sock puppet at the border of Cotes d’Ivoire and Ghana. I belive that one of the base level criteria for mankind is mining - kidding - that a common criteria for humanity is a form of mutual brotherhood and that quality includes the ability to laugh at ourselves and each other. So, when big military guys with AK-47s and quite stern intentions surrounded this international attorney of complicated mining affairs and one other big guy trying to protect us all (moi avec mon collègue), I made a sock puppet and began to speak French out the car window to them, though I do not speak French. I used a pocket dictionary and communicated to the throng that my poor buddies had a lot more to deal with than the political instability du jour and disintegrating border relationships - they had: me and I am crazy geo woman with a sock puppet and please let us go.

It worked. For that day and in that moment, making people laugh worked in a rough situation. And THAT is why he sent this article to me. People are people are people all over the world and even in politically unstable situations, there is SOMETIMES an element of humanity that wants to come out, that wants to have a better day. I don’t think I would recommend using a sock puppet in the face of danger all the time, but it worked for me.

2007 12 31 Michele Murray Mining Comments (0) Permalink