Published on July 25, 2018
Midas Gold Idaho wants to keep the community informed about the work we are doing at the Stibnite Gold Project site. The Ask Midas blog series gives the experts in our company a chance to answer some of the community’s most frequently asked questions and help clear up any misconceptions around the project.
It will take hundreds of employees to bring the Stibnite Gold Project to life. With so many different people needed on the project – from construction workers, to office staff, to miners – we’ve been asked where all of these folks might live. We’ve given a lot of thought to this question and I’m excited to share our plans with you.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR HOUSING EMPLOYEES?
As a company, we’ve made a commitment to look to Idaho first for human resources and talent. This means we want to hire as many Idahoans for our project as possible. Given the number of employees we will need, there currently aren’t enough individuals living in the communities near our project to fill all of the positions we will have open. In addition, the two to three-hour drive one way from Cascade to site is too far for a safe daily commute. So, of course, housing is a huge concern for us and for communities near the site.
As proposed in our Plan of Restoration and Operations, we plan to build the Stibnite Lodge to house more than 500 employees up at site. The lodge will be very similar to a hotel. Our employees will have their own rooms, laundry and housekeeping services, gym facilities and access to food around the clock. Employees will be required to stay at the Stibnite Lodge during their shifts to minimize traffic on the road, decrease the risk of accidents, reduce dust from the gravel roads and have less impact on local road users. To further reduce the number of cars on the road, 90 percent of our employees will travel to and from the site by bus.
We recognize people are not just concerned about where our employees will live when they are working, but where they will ultimately choose to call home. Employees up at site will generally work in two-week shifts. After being up at site for 14-days, they will have 14-days off, which leaves plenty of time to drive to other parts of Idaho and still have lots of time for some much deserved rest and relaxation. We proposed this schedule to give our employees maximum flexibility and make job opportunities open to more Idahoans. When employees do not have to make a long daily commute or have longer rotation schedules, they can choose to live further away from the Stibnite Gold Project and not strictly in the adjacent communities.
However, we do expect some of our employees will want to live in Valley County and adjacent Adams County. As more families move into these communities, we recognize cities may need to make improvements to, or expand their infrastructure, including housing, wastewater treatment facilities and roads. An independent third-party study of our proposed project, estimates 170 employees would move their families into Adams or Valley County, bringing an additional 460 people to the region assuming an average family of 2.7 people. We are committed to supporting the communities of the West Central Mountains and we are currently working with the region to determine the best way we can support all of them as they grow.
