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Page 3 of 5 <br />Climax back in business <br />Lake County will reap hundreds of jobs in restart <br />By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News (Contact) <br />Wednesday, December 5, 2007 <br />It's official: The storied Climax mine near Leadville will reopen after lying dormant for a dozen years, a <br />half-billion-dollar project that's expected to generate hundreds of new jobs. <br />"This is a great day for Lake County," Lake County Commissioner Mike Hickman said. <br />The molybdenum mine's owner, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., announced it would spend <br />$500 million to begin major construction at Climax next spring and resume open-pit mining operations <br />in 2010. <br />Construction employment will begin with about 150 workers and peak at more than 500. The operation <br />will employ about 350 miners when production begins, according to Freeport-McMoRan. <br />"They're bringing good-paying jobs to Lake County," Hickman said. "They're also bringing substantial <br />investment to this community." <br />Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan also said it would study the option of ever%tually doubling the mine's <br />initial output. <br />Molybdenum price way up <br />The mining giant spent months examining whether to restart the decades-old Climax in light of the <br />climbing price of molybdenum, a metal for hardening steel. <br />Lake County residents have been waiting anxiously for word on whether Climax would, indeed, reopen, <br />hoping a restart would pump fresh economic life into the area. <br />But at the same time, many residents in Leadville, the county seat, have been wary about betting their <br />economic future on Climax. <br />The town has aboom-and-bust history, thanks to Climax. Reflecting the world economy's fluctuations, <br />Climax has opened and shut before. Thousands lost jobs in the 1980s. <br />"This project will provide long-term, low-cost production and enable us to continue our long-standing <br />tradition of providing our customers with high-quality molybdenum products and service," Freeport- <br />McMoRan CEO Richard Adkerson said in a statement. <br />The initial project involves the restart of open-pit mining and the construction of new "state-of--the-art" <br />milling facilities for processing and extracting molybdenum. Annual production is expected to reach <br />about 30 million pounds. <br />12/5/2007 <br />