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MERRITT HERALD FREE
TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
MUSIC MAVENS Fowl Mouth McPhee plays to a crowd of about 50 people on Saturday night during the first City of Music weekend. The one-third Merrittonian, two-thirds Horseshoe Bay-based band rocked the main stage behind the Merritt Desert Inn before Johnny Cash tribute band David James and Big River. The event, which organizers hope to make annual, gave local musicians the chance to share the stage with more than a dozen acts over Friday and Saturday at various venues around town. The weekend wrapped up with an Elvis tribute show on Sunday. Emily Wessel/Herald
Treasure Mountain operations suspended: Huldra Exact number of layoffs unclear while Huldra Silver secures financing By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
Treasure Mountain Mine has temporarily stopped operations while operator Huldra Silver completes financing, but the mine has not shut down, interim CEO Peter Espig says. “We’ve gone into what’s called care and maintenance,” Espig said. “Care and maintenance is, essentially,
you’ve positioned yourself to go back into full production at any time. That’s the status we’re in.” One newspaper reported the suspension cost about 20 local people their jobs at the silver, lead and zinc mine about 20 kilometres northwest of Merritt, but Espig did not confirm that number. “I can say we had approximately 100
M E R R I T T
employees and the financing would allow us to bring the people back,” he said. “Right now, we’ve probably got 10 people, which you would require to have the care and maintenance.” Huldra began mining the site in 2012, and stopped operations for care and maintenance at the site late last month. Espig said there’s no timeline yet
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right now. “It is unfortunate that the Treasure Mountain Mine shut down production due to the reduction in the price of silver and while the company pursues additional financing,” a Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesperson wrote in an email, noting mines take large amounts of capital financing to start up and maintain.
pany has done about 60 per cent of that financing and is now looking for the final 40 per cent. “All I can say is that we’re working very hard on getting the financing to facilitate the recommencement of full operations,” he said. A Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesperson said capital markets to provide financing for mining ventures are difficult
good part of the mine, but we had to raise required liquidity in order to complete the mining of that area of the mine,” Espig said. “There’s significant revenues coming out of that if it is mined. That’s what we’re out there looking for, but obviously, the equity markets have collapsed and so the silver prices were hurt.” Espig said the com-
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for when the financing might be secured and the employees reinstated. A June 26 statement on the company’s website attributed the suspension to “market factors,” which Espig explained as the volatility in silver prices and repayment obligations for the mine’s operation. “We’re really close to mining a juicy, very
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