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(Carson, City,
NV) Governor Jim Gibbons today announced
that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
will work together with Coeur Rochester,
Incorporated (CRI) to expedite necessary
environmental studies that will lead to
re-opening and expansion of the Coeur
Rochester mine near Lovelock, Nevada. Right
now the mine employs about 30 people with a
payroll around $4-million dollars. The
expansion project is expected to create up
to 200 new jobs and add up to $20-million
dollars to CRI’s payroll.
Originally, the
BLM had ordered CRI to conduct an
environmental impact statement (EIS) before
CRI could proceed with their expansion
project. EIS processes are extremely
cumbersome and can take years to complete.
Governor Gibbons sent a letter to the BLM
asking that CRI be allowed to conduct an
environmental assessment (EA) of the impacts
of the project. An EA can be completed in
much less time. In a letter to Governor
Gibbons, BLM confirms they will work with
CRI to create a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) that will allow CRI to proceed with
the scoping process to solicit public
comment to identify concerns, issues and
potential impacts which will be used to
prepare a draft EA. The BLM has also agreed
to work with CRI to identify a mutually
acceptable third-party contractor that will
be committed to quickly preparing a
comprehensive EA.
“It
is vital to create new jobs in Nevada as
quickly as possible,” Governor Gibbons said,
“I am pleased the BLM and Coeur Rochester
were able to come up with an agreement that
will speed up the approval processes and put
Nevadans back to work, while at the same
time protecting Nevada’s environment.” |
