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Page 4 of 5 <br />Freeport-McMoRan said it would study whether to expand output down the road to about 60 million <br />pounds a year. <br />Variety of uses <br />Molybdenum is used in everything from airplane parts -where it serves as a strengthener - to computer <br />chips, where it helps prevent overheating. <br />Climax has sat dormant since 1995, a victim of plunging molybdenum prices. They slid below $2.50 a <br />pound in 2001, having changed hands at $10 back in 1977. <br />World economic growth, fueled by China's hunger for construction materials, has sent molybdenum <br />prices up more than tenfold to above $30. Freeport-McMoRan is using along-term molybdenum price <br />of $6.50 a pound in its initial calculations. <br />Situated on a high pass beneath 13,000-foot mountain peaks, Climax sprawls across 22 square miles of <br />private land. It sits at the headwaters of three rivers: the Arkansas, the Eagle and Tenmile Creek. <br />The potential restart of the mine has attracted much less environmental attention than a Wyoming <br />company's plans to open a molybdenum mine on Mount Emmons, which looms above the ski-resort <br />community of Crested Butte. <br />That project has drawn significant opposition from community leaders. <br />Water-treatment plant <br />Freeport-McMoRan recently completed construction of a $23 million water-treatment plant designed to <br />treat all water leaving the Climax site so it meets environmental standards before entering streams. <br />Jeff Parsons, senior attorney for the Western Mining Action Project, a nonprofit group in Lyons that <br />handles mining and environmental issues, called the new water-treatment plant "encouraging." He also <br />noted that the mine's restart will occur on the existing site, as opposed to the opening of a brand new <br />mine. <br />And Parsons pointed to Freeport-McMoRan's operations at the Henderson molybdenum mine near the <br />town of Empire, in Clear Creek County. <br />"By all accounts, that's a very well-run operation," Parsons said. "I'm not aware of any major water <br />quality issues there." <br />Climax molybdenum mine <br />* Owner: Freeport-McMoRan Inc. <br />* Restart investment: $500 million <br />* Projected resumption of output: 2010 <br />* Jobs: As many as 500 construction jobs and 350 full-time operating employees <br />12/5/2007 <br />