Montana mining hit it big in the national press this year. Any of you get Forbes magazine? You see Denny Washington on the cover in a black leather jacket? Mighty fast company for a Missoula, Mont., boy. Forbes calls him a “demibillionaire.”
Now, I know Denny. And I know he would like to be here today. But his chief operations officer Frank Gardner is here.
Denny Washington is a good example of what’s right with Montana mining. A private operator, he horse-traded an international energy company for a string of bankrupt, shut-down pits people used to call the Anaconda copper mines. It seems Frank Gardner told him that if the fat was trimmed from these operations, there was no reason they couldn’t produce copper at 50 cents a pound. Most of you remember that in 1986 copper was selling for 67 cents a pound.
It took guts, but Washington has guts. He re-opened the Anaconda mine, put 325 Montana miners back to work, and put Montana back on the map as a copper producer. Everybody got well.
Anaconda’s miners share in the profits. Denny Washington and his men and women have made a better copper mine. They all made more money. That’s capitalism. That’s risk and benefit. That’s the way business ought to be done.
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