Oregon Resources Corp (ORC) mines for minerals such as chromite, garnet, zircon, titanium, magnetite, etc. within old beaches that are now hundreds of feet above sea level and one to three miles inland.  The deposits that ORC mines are called placer deposits. A placer deposit is a concentration of minerals that are resistant to breaking down by the forces of Mother Nature.

Beach Layers w/ Black Sand

Placers need four things to happen in order to become a deposit. First, there has to be a source for the minerals. In our case, the Klamath Mountains in southern Oregon and northern California include chromite, garnets, zircons, etc. The problem is, however, that they are in very hard rocks that are difficult to mine or spaced so far apart that mining just doesn’t make sense. That leads to the second task required to form a placer:  breaking down the rock and minerals. The Klamath Mountains are being broken down by rain, wind, freezing, thawing, animals burrowing, critters eating, etc. Mother Nature does the work of mining for us by breaking down and freeing up all of the minerals we are interested in.   The third requirement is transportation. Big rivers such as the Illinois, Rogue, Chetco, Coquille, and Sixes flush the broken down sand from the mountain and helps to weed out the minerals that aren’t strong, such as feldspars. These minerals dissolve and enter the rivers as elements, where they are washed to the ocean, helping to keep it salty! The minerals that don’t dissolve are placer minerals….the chromite, garnet, zircon, etc. 

The Final step that is needed involves the ocean. The rivers from the third step carry the sand to the ocean, where the Pacific slams it against the beach, rolling and shaking it up violently. This rounds, sizes, and sorts the good placer minerals from the quartz beach sand. Once a deposit of high concentration is formed, the beach is uplifted by the subduction zone that is offshore. The subduction zone is where two of earth’s crustal plates are colliding, causing great forces.  These forces are great enough to pop the land upwards. This is how the coastal range of Oregon is forming (and moving up as we speak!). The beaches where placer deposits are formed are lifted up too.  When the earth is lifted up, the ocean recedes and forms a new beach and placer. This has continued for several steps or terraces, forming what looks like a staircase, if you were to walk from the east to west.

Excavation and Reclamation, Side-by-Side

As we’ve noted in previous posts, we’ve planned for two operations underway simultaneously, side-by-side, at our south Seven Devils site—excavation and reclamation. That’s just what’s happening at the approximately three-acre parcel we have worked to this point.

So far it’s about 50-50 excavation and reclamation. At the excavation side, the dig has ranged from about 6 feet to 30 feet at the deepest. The tailings have been scooped up and trucked off to the separating plant, where the minerals are separated by gravity and magnets.

Concurrently, at the other end of the site, the reclamation is underway. While one side is scooping materials out of the ground to be trucked to the plant, the “non-economic” materials, in geology-speak, are being returned to where they came from. That means the quartz ,feldspar, and all the heavy minerals with no value other than as part of the in-fill are trucked back “home” and, with the help of bulldozers and a conveyor, are mixed in with the leftover pebbles, rocks and cobbles and the clay.

It’s not rocket science, but reclamation is a good, environmentally and ecologically sound operation that is more precise than it sounds.  The ground needs to be graded and returned to its original topography, meaning we put back in any conveyances, troughs or streams where they were originally located. We want all the water running in the same direction as it was.

RECENT RECLAMATION

To be sure we have it right a surveyor is on site, telling us it should be two feet here or eight feet there. The idea is to have all the water running in the same direction on the surface.

Any topsoil that was stored prior to mining is placed on top of the graded surface.

Then there is erosion control. You can’t just leave the site full of mud. We are using a natural form of erosion control—a grass mix that is seeded into the site.

Finally, we return what we call the “slash,” a term for all the stumps, snags, rhododendron plants and brush that was pushed off to the side of the site when it was excavated. We disperse it around the site per the landowners request because it adds nutrients for the trees, which will be replanted as the final step.

A Career and an Education

Brianna Hanson, the Marketing Manager at ORC, is an interesting and personable young woman, but also very driven. Already, she has worked as a manager for a real-estate company in Washington and Oregon, and for a Senator in Washington DC, where she met her husband. However, when Brianna moved with her husband back to Coos Bay two years ago to be close to her husband’s family, she thought she was giving up on her education and career. For her, the prospect of losing the opportunities for personal advancement was the hardest part about the move to Coos Bay.

Brianna Hanson

“When I began to hear about ORC, I wanted to find employment with them. I saw this company as a great opportunity,” she said. She began with managing the incoming shipments outside, but gradually gained responsibility. “What’s great about working for ORC is if you’re doing a good job, they’ll really take notice and reward your work,” she said. And her strong work ethic and personal drive has truly paid off. Now, she not only has a senior position within the staff as the Marketing Manager, but she is also working towards a graduate degree. “ORC is helping me to get a Masters in Science and Technology Communication,” she said with excitement. Recently, Brianna attended GIFA in Germany, one of the largest foundry conventions in the world, representing ORC and networking with international businesses.

Many of the people who work with Brianna will rave about her hardworking habits and intelligence. Yet Brianna is overwhelmingly grateful for the opportunity to work with ORC.  “I never thought I would be getting a masters education or having an exciting and challenging career,” she said. “It’s just such a blessing.”

New Beginning

Rich Walker and Angela Kincaid are enthusiastic about their work at Oregon Resources Corporation; it has not only been a great experience for their careers, but it is also an opportunity for their family.



Angela and Rich

Previously they had both worked with D. R. Horton Inc, a company primarily focused on housing and construction. When the housing market crashed in 2007, there were devastating effects on their family. As the industry shrank, their work was transferred elsewhere. They were forced to give up the home they owned, and moved back with their family to the Bay area, looking for new jobs. Rich, a Coquille Native American, had lived around the Eugene Area for a few years before moving back to the south coast of Oregon with Angela’s family in Coos Bay. Unfortunately, jobs at that time were few and far between.

In his search for employment, Rich had heard about ORC long before they began to hire general staff, and worked persistently to get his foot in the door. He was hired as a Dry Mill Operations Assistant, and Angela, was soon employed as an Accounting Specialist.

After enduring the adversity and insecurity of unemployment, Angela and Rich see their work at the plant as an opportunity to improve their careers and their family. In terms of their jobs, they feel entirely comfortable with the way the plant works. As Rich attests, “everyone, even the lowest on the totem pole, is really well trained. Everyone knows how the whole plant works.” Moreover, they believe that ORC has their interests at heart. “I know ORC is a company that really looks out for its employees’ interests,” affirms Rich, “it is a company that really connects to the local community, but still aims to do something big.” The couple is impressed how thoroughly management trains each employee. As Rich explains, “the CEO knows everyone; everyone is treated well.”

In the greater Coos Bay community, Rich and Angela have seen the opinions of their family and friends grow more positive as they learn about the plant. “When people hear about the work and the benefits, they want their foot in the door,” Rich says, “People are starting to see this as a really good thing for the community.” They note that even other businesses – from trucking companies to the shoe store selling worker boots are benefiting from the influx of capital to the community.

But for Rich and Angela, the most important contribution of ORC is to their family. “These opportunities have helped us immensely; we are starting over again, and it has been a great start,” Rich says. The family, with four kids aged 6, 7, 10 and 14 are now moving back into a house of their own and enrolling in a new school in the fall. It is a new beginning for their whole family.

Local resident passionate about community

Visiting the Highway 101 Harley Davidson shop in Coos Bay, it was alive with people, looking at the bikes or browsing the merchandise. And behind this store is an individual whose expertise extends beyond the world of motorcycles.

Al Pettit

Before Al Pettit came to Coos County in 2006 to start a Harley business, he had an extensive career as an executive in large-scale companies, such as Apple and Citrix.  He has worked in many start-up businesses over his career and has helped larger companies expand internationally. But the lifestyle of a business executive was taxing on Al and his family, and after some reflection he decided that what he wanted to do was open a Harley Davidson shop.

Now a Coos Bay resident and Harley Davidson shop owner for five years, Al is passionate about the economic stability and social health of his community. He recalls a more prosperous community when he first came here; now, he says, “the recession has amplified the problems people in this community and in all of southern Oregon face.” On June 1^st, Al gave a presentation to the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Legislative Action Team. Highlighting many of the issues faced by the community, such as the high unemployment rate (averaging 150 percent higher than the national average) and the limited opportunities for youth (50 percent of the county’s children come from low-income families; approximately 450 students are homeless on any given day).

Al also made note of how the community can – and must – change, in order to revive itself. In particular, he emphasized how the community and the state must adjust legislatively to support the development of business and economic opportunities, which will in turn provide the community with jobs and capital.

It comes as no surprise that Al is one of the most passionate advocates of the work of Oregon Resources Corporation in Coos County. “The community can no longer rely on fishing and lumber alone, with the housing market hitting an all-time low,” he said, “we need to pursue new and different businesses in order to save the community.” Not only does ORC provide jobs, he asserts, but it also taps into alternative markets, giving the community more economic security. 

When discussing opposition ORC has faced in the community, he believes that while most members of the Bay Area don’t oppose ORC; there is a “small, focused minority of the population whose main goal is to prevent what they feel would bother their lifestyles.” Al cites misinformation or no information as main components of opposition. “If there are economic, environmental or safety concerns, we need to talk, to debate based on solid fact and data, and historic information available,” he said.

As ORC grows, he says it will encourage other industries to invest in the region. “A lot of people focus on just [the effects of] the jobs. But [ORC] touches a lot of people’s lives … my customers have already benefited from the project.”

At Oregon Resources, Safety is a Priority

When entering the Oregon Resources Corporation processing plant in Coos Bay on a normal day, the men and women in safety equipment and protective gear are immediately visible. Equipped with the brightly colored reflective vests, protective eyewear and hardhats, the plant workers are hard to miss. This extra visibility prominently displays one of the many ways the ORC is committed to maintaining high safety standards.

“On our site, safety is a priority,” says Peter Zagar, director of Environmental Health & Safety. And he is not exaggerating. Every person who tours the sand cleaning and separation plant must be briefed in site-specific training, and all of the staff members who will spend more than four consecutive days in a year on the site are required to undergo an extensive 24-hour Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) course on site protocol and safety.

Following industry standards is important, but the company has specific policies to further prevent injury and diminish risk on-site. For example, it is required that only two people are certified with basic First Aid. At ORC, over 60% of the entire staff is trained. Additionally, all individuals working on-site are required to wear steel-toed boots to prevent small accidents.

“Our company is about creating a culture that puts safety first,” Zagar said. Contrary to many other businesses in the US, ORC has a strong philosophy about minimizing risks in the workplace, for both social and economic reasons. “We believe a safe work environment is a more productive one,” said Zagar.

So far, the heightened safety protocol has been rewarding for the company, with zero accidents to date.

An Energetic Leader, A Commitment To The Environment

John Rockwell, the Lab Manager, has an easy laugh and a great passion for what he does.  It is easy to see his new lab is a fun and interesting place to work. A new addition to the community, he enjoys living and working in Coos Bay and even sings in the local church choir.



John Rockwell | 2nd from left with colleagues Robert Lea, Jeff Bytof and Zane Broman

In terms of a commitment to the environment, John calls Oregon Resource Corporation’s work in Coos County the best of any resource company he’s seen. Though he has extensive experience in similar institutions, John is enthusiastic about the corporation’s commitment to the natural beauty of Coos Bay.

ORC strives to minimize environmental harm at the plant. As the man in charge of  analyzing the materials that run through the plant, John can see first-hand the effects of the separation process on the environment and ORC’s efforts minimize any impact.

“The plant uses less power, less heat, less water and less chemicals than similar plants,” John said. The separation process, which is essentially cleaning the sand, uses physical properties such as the weight, magnetism and conductivity of the different minerals to mechanically sort the various components. Also, the water used to process the materials runs through a treatment system to ensure minimal negative impact.  John notes, “The water is cleaner than street run-off,” helping to keep Coos County a clean and beautiful community.

In the lab alongside John are three other technicians, all local to Coos Bay.  Among them, Zane Broman, 19, enjoys his work in the lab.  He jokes, “It’s a great job … I’m not forced to say, ‘do you want fries with that?’” Instead, he gains lab experience analyzing the composition of material gathered.  John shares not only his expertise, but also his passion and energy for what he does, bringing his enthusiasm to his colleagues in the lab and to his new home.

It’s No Secret—ORC Is a Great Place to Work

The last time Cecelia Brinke, the Director of Human Resources for Oregon Resources Corporation, placed a “help wanted” notice—for a forklift operator—more than 500 people applied.

“We are known here as one of the premier employers in the community, and the employer that’s actually doing some hiring,” said Brinke, who can relate to all those prospective employees. She was one herself only last January.

Cecelia Brinke

“I saw an article on ORC in the October issue of Mining Engineering,” said Brinke, a veteran of 25 years in human resources who was working for Freeport McMoran in Arizona at the time. “I had the article sitting on my desk for several months. Finally I picked up the phone and marketed myself. They made me an offer the day after Christmas and I started here January 10.”

It’s obviously no secret in the Coos Bay community that ORC is a great place to work. There are currently 68 fulltime employees at ORC, a number expected to swell to 72 in the next month or so as the company fully ramps up its excavation efforts. But that doesn’t count the vendors who also work on the site, and are all also local contractors. West Coast Resources, a local firm that does the actual excavation work, hired an additional eight people from the community to support ORC’s needs. And Jerry Bowers Trucking, a local contractor that is trucking the materials from the site, hired an additional 12 people, all from the Coos Bay and surrounding local area.

“Our administration and production is all 100 percent local,” Brinke said. “We like to highlight that fact. The local vendors, like the gym, and the bank, and AT&T, have all offered employees discounts. The World, our local newspaper, highlights our ‘Employee of the Week’ each week. Last week that was John Cook, one of our employees and a great guy. He’s been married for 28 years, has two great children, and born and raised in Coos County.”

Brinke can sincerely say that ORC takes care of its employees. She says the company offers “one of the best benefit packages in the community—major medical, dental and vision insurance,” for which the company pays 100 percent of the premium, and at least two weeks of vacation for every employee. Then there are employee luncheons during the week, like the barbecue they had May 24. And Boys and Girls Club functions that ORC supports.

“We are focusing on the opportunity of keeping it in the community, but also being able to give back to the community,” Brinke said.

For a Geologist, Coos Bay Is an Ideal Place to Work and Live

Joe Drew can easily pinpoint the genesis of his interest in rocks, minerals and geology. It all started during his family vacations as a child.

Joe Drew

“I was a kid from Illinois, where there’s not a lot of mountains or rocks. It’s all dirt,” said Drew, 32, the Director of Geology for Oregon Resources Corporation. “So we’d go on vacation to Appalachia or South Dakota or someplace like that and all the rocks were interesting to me.”

One of his most vivid vacation memories was in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, in the Smoky Mountains near Asheville.

“They had a site where you could pan for garnets and minerals and I thought it was the neatest thing,” Drew added. “Ever since then I knew I was going to get into geology, and I never looked back.”

Joe went on to get bachelors and masters degrees in geology and geophysics at the University of Missouri-Rolla, now called the Missouri University of Science and Technology (and formerly Missouri School of Mines).

That got him a job with DuPont based in Florida where, similar to his work in Oregon, his group was excavating beach sands for titanium minerals (ilmenite, leucoxene, rutile), zircon, aluminum silicates, and staurolite. DuPont used these minerals to make paint pigment as well as foundry, blasting, and refractory uses.

Two years later he was in Georgia working as a mine geologist for Iluka Resources, where he met two other future ORC employees: Todd Lessard and Dan Smith. All three ultimately wound up settling in the Coos Bay area with their families.

Joe and his wife, Jessica, bought a home in the area in 2006 and spend their off time enjoying the scenery and outdoors along the Oregon coast. They are expecting their first child in October.

“There are so many historical places, old towns that have a history and old historical buildings. We like to get out and hike, so for us this is a great place to live,” he said.

It helps that he is deeply involved in a project that is so connected to the Coos Bay area.

“Everyday something new happens that makes us sit back and think that this project has gone from an idea to now working and producing product,” he said. “That’s real nice. It’s great that we have had the opportunity to guide and nurture this project from its infancy to where it is now.”

Garnet, the Least Flashy of Our Minerals

The third mineral among the main targets of our excavation project is garnet, defined in Wikipedia as “a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.”

The garnet we are finding in the black sands of the Oregon coast has no doubt been there for centuries, naturally crushed and ground to a fine grain. Like zircon, garnet comes in a variety of colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, just to name a few. The garnet we are finding along the Oregon coast is reddish orange in color, one of the most common of the mineral’s colors.

While this is high-quality, high-value garnet, it’s the least glamorous of the minerals we are collecting. Its fine-grain, very hard composition probably means its best use is for high-precision water jet cutting, maybe even for aerospace applications. Water jet machines are typically used to cut things like granite or metal, anywhere you need to cut a variety of materials without generating a lot of heat. It’s also used for optical lens grinding and plate glass grinding.

Water jet machines use very small volumes of water mixed with an abrasive like garnet and specialized pumps that can generate pressure exceeding 50,000 pounds per square inch. The result is a laser-like stream of high-pressure material that can cut through such things as steel or aluminum. The use of garnet in precision water jet cutting is expanding and the domestic U.S. market is expected to increase for the next several years.

Our job here is relatively simple: to gather it, put it in a bag and sell it, mostly to local sources along the West Coast, from the Pacific Northwest down to Los Angeles.

Chromite Is the Goal, But We’ll Take the Zircon, Too

It’s the chromite in the black sand deposits that’s the primary goal of Industrial Minerals Ltd, but another mineral found here—zircon—is valuable, too.

In fact, zircon has such a wide variety of uses and unique qualities—including hardness and durability—that its value is skyrocketing as its supply is dwindling, said Joe Drew, Oregon Resources Director of Geology.

“Zircon is one of those minerals that has the world scratching and clawing to get as much of it as they can,” Drew said. “Resources are dwindling and demand is steadily increasing. Because it’s becoming more and more rare, of course the prices are going up.”

A few years ago zircon would fetch about $900 a ton. Today that price has jumped to about $1,600. “Zircon certainly carries a premium on price, but there’s just much less of it here,” Drew noted.


Coos Bay area zircon

The world seems to be running out of easily accessed deposits for zircon, a mineral that has many uses depending on its type and quality. The zircon found in the deposits near Coos Bay is fit mostly for use as foundry sand, according to Drew.

After literally millions of years developing underground, zircon comes in many colors including red, pink, brown, beige, yellow, hazel, black or even colorless.

The world’s biggest producer of zircon is Iluka Resources Ltd., an Australian company based in Perth on Australia’s west coast with a market share of about 33 percent. Iluka also has mining and processing operations in Virginia.

Historically the demand for zircon was dominated by the European ceramics industry. But today, thanks to its tremendous economic boom, China now buys 40 percent of the world’s zircon supply, up from only 3 percent in 1990. The majority of the zircon in China, like the rest of the world, is used for making ceramic tiles.

Based on the fact that emerging economies are growing so quickly and only starting to experience a need for zircon, Drew and officials from Iluka see the demand for the mineral only getting larger.

“A few new deposits of zircon are coming online, but not nearly enough to meet the demand,” Drew said.

The Unique Qualities of Oregon Chromite

Prior to the start of excavation, a key part of our preparation was a serious analysis of the mineral deposits found in the ancient black sands of the south Oregon coastal area. It turned out that chromite makes up the majority of the minerals in these sandy deposits, but not just any chromite. The chromite found here has important qualities that are unique in the U.S. and perhaps the world.

Chromite Ore from South Africa

Currently, South Africa is the world’s leading supplier and exporter of chromite, with small amounts also coming from Kazakhstan. But the South African chromite is angular and needs to be crushed in preparation for its use in foundries.



Our Oregon chromite is a high quality grade that has been washed and shaped by nature. It comes out of the deposits already rounded, cleaner and of a narrow particle size. The shape is considered much better for making molds because it has less pore space and therefore needs less binder. This makes it cost effective, but it also reduces casting defects and ultimately makes the inside of molds smoother so you get a better finish on the casting. It’s the kind of chromite foundries prefer but until now it has been unavailable. Because of its characteristics we are calling it SpheriChrome™

As a historical reference, chromite sand was first used in the foundry industry for making molds for molten metal, mostly iron, in the 1960s. Currently there are about 3,100 foundries active in the U.S. and the majority of the iron they make is used in the automobile industry.

Because of the shortage of local chromite, however, foundries switched to zircon sands, a much more expensive mineral (which is also found in the black sands of Oregon). While zircon works, chromite is the preferred product because it allows the heat to transfer out of the molds more effectively. And, again, the roundness of the Oregon chromite is more effective than the angular South African material.

When finally up and running at full capacity, we estimate that we can produce about 70,000 tons of this unique Oregon chromite a year.

Concurrent Reclamation—Works Just Like a Zipper

As we noted in an earlier post, we will be excavating minerals and reclaiming our site simultaneously. We call it concurrent reclamation. It makes sense from an operational standpoint, and helps us minimize any disruptions to the land.

The first step in our process is the clearing of a portion of our leased land—about 2-3 acres starting in the south Seven Devils deposit area. During the course of the first year we will be disturbing only about 12-15 acres total. We do our best to limit the opened area.

We have already constructed roads to reach the excavation area and started the clearing process. We are working closely with officials from Weyerhaeuser, the landowners in this area.


Access Road Construction



Land Clearing



Sand Removal

We understand and respect the importance of the forest in this area, both for the people who live here and Weyerhaeuser, a company with deep ties in the lumber business. They don’t want to be left with bare land when we leave and we will not do any permanent damage. So we have discussed our plans thoroughly with Weyerhaeuser and they are in agreement with our process. We expect to finish clearing the trees this week and the Douglas fir cleared from the site will go to Weyerhaeuser.

We compare our concurrent reclamation process to a zipper. We unzip the earth; move the topsoil to the edge of the site and save it for later. Then we separate our minerals; the sand that’s leftover will be put back into the site. Before we’re finished we also contour the area to its original topography. Any drainage features or water conveyances that existed before we opened the site will be restored to the best of our ability. Then we put the topsoil back on the opened site. It’s like we zip it right back up before we replant the trees.

In the next few days we’ll start removing sand—probably about 6,000 tons of surface sand during the first week. We’ll move that to the cleaning and sorting plant at Bunker Hill where we’ll be separating the chromite, zircon and garnet.

 

Mineral Deposits Are Mother Nature at Work

Throughout the years the draw for mineral seekers coming to the southern Oregon coast has been the streaks of black sand, what old timers used to call “pay streaks,” that can be found lining the Oregon beaches. In geological terms they are called “placer deposits,” and geologists say they are actually the work of Mother Nature.

(Photos taken April 11, 2011)

The Beach at Seven Devils

"Placer Deposits" at Seven Devils Shore



Thanks to Mother Nature’s confluence of four important geologic events, the southern Oregon coast is rich with these black sands that contain the chromite, garnet and zircon that we are looking for.

The first event—the source—is the bedrock of the coastal range of the Klamath Mountains that runs through southern Oregon and northern California. As the mountain materials erode and break away from the source there has to be a form of transportation—the second geologic event. This includes the rivers, streams and ocean currents that carry the sand, sediment and minerals out of the mountains and dump them into the ocean.

Next you need a depositional mechanism—the third event in our geologic confluence—that manages to gather the minerals in one place. The mechanism here is the extremely high energy of the Pacific Ocean along the Oregon coast that pounds the beaches with enough power to segregate, separate and concentrate the valuable minerals in collective deposits.

Finally, you have to preserve these mineral deposits so they don’t get washed away—the fourth confluent event. Once you have a concentrated collection of minerals, something needs to happen to preserve that deposit. Here on the Oregon coast the surface of the earth—its tectonic plates—are being pushed upward, settling at about 200-400 feet above sea level. That’s where we find the main concentrations of black sands today.

Mother Nature has taken a whole region, eroded it, kept the best minerals and deposited them on the beaches, and then pushed them up away from the ocean. That’s where our work begins.

The Mineral-Rich South Oregon Coast—A Colorful History

It was a search for gold that first drew prospectors—mostly wayward ‘49ers spilling over from the California Gold Rush—to the mineral-rich south Oregon coast way back in the middle 1800’s.  Today it’s chromite, garnet, zircon, and other valuable minerals.

Excavating in earnest really began in the 1940s during World War II.  Backed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), a pair of private contractors broke ground in the Seven Devils area, the same spot that Oregon Resources Corporation is preparing for excavation this month.  The old concrete structures and corrugated buildings left over from the World War II work can still be found in the area.

The WWII workers were also excavating for chromite, which they made into a chromite concentrate they shipped east to be used in stainless steel that the DOD needed for the war effort.  Back then, the DOD didn’t want to rely on foreign sources for chromite during the war and the southern Oregon coast was found to be the one area where it was abundant.  They called these “strategic minerals” and the mining was of great importance.

A similar situation exists today. South Africa, India, and Kazakhstan are currently the world’s major chromite producers and it’s not being produced in the United States.  Our operation will create the first domestic source of chromite since the 1940s.  And our research shows the Oregon coast generates a higher quality of chromite than can be found anywhere else in the world.

We’re going to work a little differently than the old WWII miners did, however.  In those days, no one paid much attention to reclamation of the land, not because they didn’t care, but because the consequences weren’t known or understood.  We respect the rich natural resources of the Oregon coast and are committed to leaving the land in better condition than how we found it.