COLUMBUS, Mont. — More than 400 workers will return to the Sibanye-Stillwater Metallurgical Complex and the mine in Nye on Friday, bringing relief to employees, the company and local businesses in Columbus.
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In Columbus, they are preparing for homecoming and more customers.
Joe Morse, who owns the Palladium Drought House in Columbus, said miners are big customers for his business.
"Looking forward to the Thursday nights when the shift gets off and having them back in here will be good," Morse said. "Get a lot of the mine people or the smelter people here."
Morse is also the mayor of Columbus.
"The mine is such a big taxpayer of not only the city but the county," Morse said.
Much of the lost business this past month came from workers watching their spending, and that spending that moves the local economy has not been what it has been in recent years.
"They've always understood that it is very advantageous to be a county who benefits from hard rock mining in Montana, but they've also understood that that may not be forever and that it may not always be the same amount," said Heather McDowell, senior vice-president and general counsel, legal and external affairs for Sibanye-Stillwater
McDowell said palladium is trading around $1,500 to $1,600 an ounce, down from about $2,900 four or five years ago.
"Our budget's based around the mine dollars and, and not as drastic as it used to be. But yet it's, it's still there," said Commissioner Roger Webb, R-Stillwater County.
Webb said having other sources — like the Beaver Creek Wind Project, the now under-construction Battle Butte Solar Project on Rapelje Road and the proposed Four Sisters Solar Farm — are the diversification the county needs.
Dollars are on the minds of returning miners.
Jeff Fink, the United Steelworkers Local 11 financial secretary, said the union has been working to help some workers with financial challenges.
"We had a lot of people come in and get assistance from paying mortgages, water bills," Fink said.
The mine is waiting to see how many workers will return.
"We hope that the majority of folks will come back and they'll be ready to work safely," McDowell said.
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