Twenty people gathered around a table in Whitehall’s historic Borden’s Hotel on Thursday, April 25 for the first of what promises to be many talks on how the community might adapt to the end of gold mining at Golden Sunlight mine.
“Following a detailed review of the Golden Sunlight operation, new underground development has ceased, and mining is limited to existing areas only,” states a March 21 news release from Barrick Gold Corporation, the mine’s owner. “A final mill run to process gold ore is currently scheduled for May 2019.”
A few weeks after the announcement, the Butte Standard reported that the company doesn’t expect to reduce its workforce — currently 53 employees, 41 of them contractors — until Sept. 30. The report also states that contractors and subcontractors, numbering 103 at the end of March, have already been leaving.
