Thompson Creek makes first million dollar mine payment

“We are continuing to move forward”

Despite molybdenum prices hovering just under $10 a pound, a million dollar payment was made the first business day of 2009 from Thompson Creek Metals Company to U.S. Energy Corp (USE). The payment was part of the deal to give Thompson Creek control over the molybdenum deposit in Mt. Emmons.

“Thompson Creek is continuing as the managing partner with this project,” explained Mt. Emmons Project Director of Community Relations Perry Anderson. “Thompson Creek will also be responsible for spending money on things like research, engineering and surveying at the site this year. We are continuing to move forward.”
As part of the agreement reached last August between Thompson Creek and U.S. Energy Corporation, Thompson Creek must pay $1 million annually to USE for six years beginning January 1, 2009 and ending January 1, 2014. The first of those payments was made Friday, January 2, according to Anderson.
“I don’t think they are making substantial investments in the project,” said High Country Citizens’ Alliance public lands director Dan Morse. “The million dollars is really a very small amount. It’s less than one half of one percent of the cash they have on hand. It serves them to hold control of this property and see if there is a change in the market. It is a relatively low cost means of controlling a large molybdenum deposit.”
According to marketwatch.com, Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded, pure molybdenum producers in the world. The Company owns the Thompson Creek open-pit molybdenum mine and mill in Idaho, a metallurgical roasting facility in Langeloth, Pennsylvania and a 75 percent share of the Endako open-pit mine, mill and roasting facility in northern British Columbia. Thompson Creek is also developing the Davidson Deposit, a high-grade underground molybdenum project near Smithers, B.C.