REP23887

• Permit No: M1982075
• IBM Index Class Name: Report
• Doc Name: REPORT
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Ivry childhood dream, to successfully operate a working mine, will probably never materialize barring a miracle. M}'
dream is now history, and 1 am history too! Thanks to the keen insight of John Nunnery. formerly chief of the
Colorado Department of Labor, and later a director of the Veterans Administration, 1 now share my Colorado history
and my family history with the visiting tourists From all over the world. Ironically, this history has actually made
our tourist venture world famous. Please see sample comments enclosed with this letter of various tourists who have
visited the Phoenix mine.
The reason I am at your board meeting is because of the growth of our tourist business. The Idaho Springs
community has encouraged me to continue with this venture, which has pressured me into increasing tourist
capacity. I am in the process of making more workings accessible for tourists to view. I am creating more
attractions and things for them to do. 1 am excavating more underground working with this aspect in mind. This
activity certainly does not fall into the category of mining, but I am sure it has confused your inspector, who means
well, but is apparently not aware of the needs of an increasing tour business.
As l have said before, I enjoy sharing my knowledee of mining and mine history with visitors. I ant making new
friends From all over the world, and unless some miracle occurs to return small minim ventures back to profitable
mineral production. 1 believe our small Colorado metal minim operations, and that of the emire nation's, will
remain unprofitable and dormant.
Ironically, the demise of these small mines will probably curtail and possibly end the need for these costly and
inefficient government regulatory ;t_encies that arc a serious detriment to making mining profitable. Maybe this
lessened government expense will be a cost savings to the taxpayers and will offset the revenues once derived from
our mineral production, but [ do not believe that would he the case.
The Veterans Administration encouraged me to get into the tour business in 1989. My observations and conclusions
of the small miners Future, in this modern era. definitely look bleak and caused me to take the VA offer seriously. 1
remember when the nation found miners to be of a heroic quality for assisting its economy with valuable mineral
production and supplying the nation with critical minerals needed to fight for our survival and prosperity. Now, the
miner is looked upon as a villain intent nn destroyins the enviromnent.
Because of the efforts of John Nunnery, who had become my friend and who was well versed on my family heritage
and history, the V A granted me a contract to take all their employers. thousands of them Front all over the nation, to
sec the Phoenix mine. A few years later their budeet was slashed. They could no longer afford to renew their
contract, but by this time, 1 now had a taste of the tourist business and had begun building a tourist business outside
of the contract. 1 found [really enjoyed tellin, tourists about Colorado mining history and practices.
i was further encouraged to pursue an active tour business because of the crash in the gold and silver market in
1983. Prior to 1983, my tenacity did cause me to hope that someday I could get my family mine again into
production. Sadly to say. the market has never come hack. Before the 1983 crash, silver was 512.00 per ounce and
void hovered around $510.00 per ounce. Silver dropped way down to $5 to 56 dollars per ounce. It hasn't budged
since. Gold prices also softened at that time, down to about $400.00 dollars an ounce. It's now even lower at less
than $x00.00 per ounce.
1 remember when the old ASSARCO smelter at Leadville was dismantled in 1960 due to insufficient ore. Currently,
the nearest exis[in_ smelter is in Trail, British Columbia. That smelters processing lees comhined with the
smesering cost of transporting the ore that distance, has made it visually impossible to make a profit. I soon
realized that shipping ore to Canada would be a foolhardy thing to do.
1 weiehed the evidence. and it convinced me it was time for me to exercise my ori;inul reclamation plan which was
to phase out the Phoenix mine and reclaim it into a tourist enterprise. Today, that is its primary function.
I believe my Phoenix mine reclamation permit was the first or one of the lust Mined Land Reclamation permits
issued in the state of Colorado. My plan for the Phoenix permit, even then. was to evenwally convert the mine into
a tourist venture.