The Golden Sunlight mine could soon increase employment, production and the amount of money it contributes to county and local budgets by reprocessing vast tailings piles at the facility—a proposed venture that government and mine officials say will also aid in remediating historic contamination at the site.
The proposal to reprocess 26 million tons of tailings over about 12 years, beginning this fall, is currently being evaluated by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. The mine, which is owned by Barrick Gold, would increase employment from its current level of 16 people to about 35 people, according to Golden Sunlight General Manager Chuck Buus, and would also hire around 40 mostly local contractors. Buus shared with The Monitor a presentation that Barrick officials gave to Gov. Greg Gianforte in March that touted a $50 million payroll and $20 million state, local and payroll tax contribution over the project’s span. Information on local components of that estimated tax revenue was not immediately available.
The mine, which opened in 1982 and employed around 300 people at its peak and averaged around 150 employees, shifted from open-pit mining to underground mining in 2013 before closing in 2019. By then, employment dropped to fewer than 20 people and jobs were limited to reclamation and closure. The DEQ will take public comments on the proposal at the Borden’s Building in Whitehall at 6:30 p.m. on June 29, and Buus expects a final decision by mid-September. He said that workers are already preparing the mine for tailings reprocessing in anticipation of approval, and that the mine could begin shipping product by December.
