plant for further crushing and grinding, and processing the 

 copper-silver concentrate by flotation. Tailings generated 

 from the process would be thickened and piped to a tailings 

 disposal area. Water from the tailings disposal pond would 

 be recycled to the process plant. 



The approximately 1,800 gpm of water that would be 

 needed to slurry the tailings at 50 percent solids would be 

 collected from the underground excavations. Potable water 

 requirements are estimated to be about 100 gpm. 



The geologic ore reserve is over 100 million tons with 

 an average grade of 2.1 ounces of silver/ton and 0.8 percent 

 copper. The ore production rate is expected to be about 

 10,000 tons/day and 3.5 million tons annually. The next 

 phase of development would include a decline into the deposit 

 to provide data for defining the overall mine plan. This is 

 expected to take 2 to 3 years and employ 35 to 50 people. 

 The construction phase for the mine and processing plant 

 would also require 2 to 3 years and employ 300 to 4 00 people. 

 The projected mine life is 20 years, and 300 to 350 people 

 would be employed in the production phase (U.S. Borax 1988) . 



U.S. Borax will have to obtain an operating permit 

 subject to joint review by both the Montana Department of 

 State Lands and the U.S. Forest Service. The company has 

 described a program to develop the necessary environmental 

 baseline data for the permit applications in the conceptual 

 plan. Based on the agencies' approved plan of study, U.S. 

 Borax is proceeding with the collection of environmental 

 baseline data for the project area. Baseline data collection 

 and the EIS process may take up to three years. 



FOREST PRODUCTS 



Economic forecasters indicate that the forest products 

 industry will continue to be the backbone of western 

 Montana's economy. While the rapid growth of the 1970s is 

 not likely to be repeated, sustained production is expected. 

 Many factors can influence the industry and its future, such 

 as changes in the U.S. housing industry, adequacy of timber 

 supply, future energy costs, and competition with other 

 timber-producing areas (Keegan and Polzin 1987) . 



Timber harvest during the past decade has relied heavily 

 on timber from private lands. Most projections indicate that 

 private timber sources will be very limited or depleted 

 during the next decade. At the same time, the demand for 

 lumber and wood products is expected to increase dramati- 

 cally. 



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