A proposed mining operation creates confrontation on the Oregon Coast

Story by Kerri Anderson
Photos and Video by Rachelle Hacmac
The scene from Seven Devils Road on a sunny October afternoon is picture-perfect. The sunlight reflecting on the calm, blue waters of the Pacific Ocean is a scenic backdrop to swaths of giant fir trees and hidden creeks, home to salmon, birds, and deer. As married couple Jack and Julie Jones gaze over the peaceful oasis, they remember why they moved to the area thirty-two years ago.
Today, this reason is exactly why they are fighting proposed plans to deforest about 200 acres of land to clear space for an open-pit chromite mine.
“It’s beautiful here. We can hear the ocean from our house,” Julie says. She fears the consequences of a future mining operation. “I won’t be able to hear the ocean anymore.”
Oregon Resources Corporation (ORC), an American subsidiary owned by a larger Australian company called Industrial Minerals Corporation (IMC), has spent the last twenty-one years surveying the land near Coos Bay and developing the most efficient way to extract chromite from under the ground surface. The unique form of chromite comes from the black sand commonly seen on beaches and contains chromite, garnet, and zircon. It’s used in the stainless steel industry for large equipment like auto parts and aircraft.
Currently, South Africa, Kazakhstan, and India are the world’s largest producers of chromite, and companies pay $310 to $360 per ton to import the mineral, according to the trade journal Industrial Minerals. If completed, the Coos Bay mine will be the only active strip mine in the United States that supplies chromite, but prices will remain competitive due to its high quality.
ORC plans to start digging the first of its new open-pit mines by March 2011 and continue the mining and reclamation process for eight years. The company will mine twenty to forty acres of land and 700,000 to 900,000 tons of ore per year. After excavation, the material will be transported to a production plant in Coos Bay, where the ore will be washed and processed to sift out the valuable minerals. The remaining sand will be used to refill the holes before the land is leveled and replanted with trees.
“It’s just digging a sand pit, that’s all we’re doing here,” says ORC’s Chief Operating Officer Dan Smith.
Thoughts of noisy construction, dust, and environmental destruction have pushed several homeowners to take action against the mining project. The Joneses are members of the Bandon Woodlands Community Association, which recently filed a lawsuit against two government agencies that granted permits to ORC. The Oregon Coast Alliance, a conservation group committed to protecting the Oregon Coast from the effects of careless development, are also plaintiffs in the case. The litigations challenge assessments made by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate potential health hazards and environmental damage from the mine.
“There is going to be noise pollution and light pollution. It’s going to alter the flora and fauna in the area, the animals. It’s going to disrupt a lot of things,” Julie says.
Despite this resistance, ORC is investing $75 million in the Coos Bay mine to obtain one of the world’s mineral rarities. The smooth spherical shape of each individual grain of the dense, shiny black sand differs from the rough, jagged edges of the chromite found in South Africa, where the U.S.  imports the majority of the mineral.
“Our chromite is really unique. It’s value added so it’s actually better than the chromite that comes from South Africa,” Smith says. “It’s very unique on the world market. They have never seen a product like this.”
Of the total chromite production in Oregon, 40 percent will be exported in the Americas, says IMC Chief Executive Officer Phillip Garratt in an Industrial Mineral article. Forty percent will be shipped to Asia, and the remainder will go to Europe.
“It’s really important to the U.S. because it will be a U.S. mine and U.S.-consumed chromite. It will help out the trade imbalance also,” Smith says. “Primarily for the local point of view, it’s jobs in Coos Bay.”
The project will create seventy to eighty management and production jobs that earn a salary of $46,000 per year. ORC is promoting the economic benefits in a town suffering from lack of business and jobs.
Coos Bay Mayor Jeff McKeown agrees that the industry will bring needed jobs to the area. Although the town will experience an increase in traffic on the usually quiet roads, McKeown sees a positive side. “The drivers in those trucks are people with jobs,” he says.
Local residents and business owners also support these plans. Resident Jim Witt focuses on baiting his fishing rod as he squats on the grassy bank of the bay near the quiet streets of the town. “I’m for anything that’ll boost the economy. It hurts when no one is working,” he says, casting his fishing line into the bay just across from the ORC processing plant.
However, uprooting existing fauna and habitats isn’t ideal for preserving the native forests and streams, and many conservation groups, including the ones the Jones’s are members of, are up in arms about maintaining the water systems and fish habitats in Coos Bay.
Concerns are especially high since the detection of the toxin hexavalent chromium in the proposed mine site. Studies show the toxin can cause respiratory problems and lung cancer.
Hexavalent chromium is often used in industry production, but in this case it formed naturally in the soil, a rare occurrence for Oregon, says Bill Mason, groundwater hydrologist for Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). For now, the amount of the toxin detected is stable and Mason assures the project will not create any additional production or use of the toxin.
“The question is, will the mining operation affect what is naturally occurring? There is a great deal of uncertainty,” Mason says.
The DEQ will be closely monitoring the site for any changes in nearby streams that provide fish and well water for some neighbors. In addition, flocculants, which are chemicals that act like filters and are commonly used in the purification of drinking water or swimming pools, are the only chemicals being used in the project, according to Smith and Mason.
Despite environmental precautions and economic benefits, some locals are still concerned about what will happen to the town after the company digs up their treasure. Sam Schwarz grew up in Coos Bay and now lives on a sailboat docked in the bay. His long blonde hair is neatly braided and he has a rough patch of stubble on his chin. He is not keen on the idea of disturbing the peaceful atmosphere of his hometown.
“They’ll get what they can and move onto the next place. Then what are we left to deal with? The mess and a lot of toxicity,” Schwarz says.
Residents who obtain their drinking water from wells are worried that the effects of mining could potentially damage the aquifers—naturally formed water filters located twenty to fifty feet under the surface. If the aquifers fail, sediment and toxins in the soil, like hexavalent chromium, can seep into the streams and creeks that many of the locals tap into to create wells, their primary water source. This is the primary reason the Joneses are filing the lawsuit.
According to the DEQ, the project will only disturb the aquifers in the area when the pits are dug up and ORC miners remove the sand forming the aquifers. Mason predicts that once the sand is returned during the reclamation process, neighbors could see increases in the amount of well water available during the summer months, when wells typically run low or even dry up.
“[The mining project] is unlikely to change the ground water regime dramatically. If anything there will be more water entering the streams than before,” Mason says.
He insists that affected aquifers are not linked to drinking water sources and ORC has taken preventative steps, including the construction of monitoring wells, dust traps, and control structures to contain storm water run-off. “ORC has met the conditions [to acquire a permit] at this point,” Mason says. “Will they be able to adhere to these conditions? We will have to see.”
The DEQ will be monitoring streams and well water regularly to ensure all potential problems are prevented. “We have plenty of time to react if we see a change,” Mason says.
Smith points out that many employees involved in the project also enjoy fishing and hunting in the area. “We are not going to do something adverse in the area where we live,” he says.
ORC doesn’t plan on abandoning Coos Bay any time soon. “There is enough chromite here to mine for fifty to one hundred years,” Smith says. “It’s just a matter of if we can get permitted.” The company is already pushing to extend the project for thirty-plus years.
The black sand has ignited a controversial debate in this close-knit town where many are anxious for the business. But the voices of the neighbors and environmentally concerned won’t stand to risk losing their peaceful lifestyle. Will the chromite mine be a treasure chest for this bayside town, or is the burden too heavy for Seven Devils?

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