Federal relief on horizon for laid off miners in Nevada

RENO, Nev. -- Nearly 1,800 Nevada miners have lost their jobs to slumping gold prices and increased imports the past year, but federal safety nets protecting U.S. workers against foreign competition should provide some relief soon.

About 600 workers at two large mines already appear to be eligible for extended jobless benefits and worker retraining under the North American Free Trade Act and other trade assistance laws, state officials said Wednesday.

It marks the first time workers in the mining industry have made a bid for the relief based on claims they've been harmed by competition from Mexico and Canada, they said.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., is making a personal plea to a dozen other mining companies in Nevada to help build a case for their former workers' eligibility for the federal aid as well.

"If your company has workers who have been adversely impacted by either increased gold imports or as a result of shifting operations to either Canada or Mexico, I would strongly urge you to consider petitioning the Department of Labor for these important benefits for your displaced workers," Bryan said in a letter last week.

The gold miners in Nevada claim that softer environmental regulations and weaker worker protection laws allow mines in Canada and Mexico to undercut domestic prices.

Last week, the Labor Department agreed with Newmont Gold Co.'s contention that increased exports from those countries had resulted in a steep decline in sales and production of gold produced at Newmont's mine in Carlin, Nev.

Labor officials concluded that the one-third decline in the price of gold caused a 40 percent increase in gold imports to the United States during the first half of 1998 compared with the same period the year before.

As a result, 500 former employees of Newmont Gold and 97 former workers at Battle Mountain Gold Co. who lost their jobs since November 1997 have filed, or are in the process of filing, applications for the federal aid.

"(That's) only the tip of the iceberg," said Carol Jackson, state director of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation in Carson City. She's identified about 1,800 workers who might qualify.

Officials for the National Mining Association and mining labor unions based in Washington said they were not aware of any other efforts under way to secure aid under NAFTA.

"Most of the layoffs we have suffered have been more due to the Clean Air Act and the Kyota agreements," said Doug Gibson, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers.

Other Western states have considered seeking federal relief for miners, but Nevada has been more vulnerable to the foreign competition because of the kind of gold mining that goes on here.

"We don't have thick veins of gold like in the movies," said Karen Rhodes, a spokeswoman for the employment department.

"The cost of getting the gold out of the earth is much higher. It takes tons and tons of ore to produce an ounce of gold," she said. "I'm sure that eventually, places like Colorado who also have been affected, will possibly jump on this type of program as well."

Nationally, metal mining employment is on the rise since a slight downturn in the early 1990s, said Karen Batra, spokeswoman for the National Mining Association.

"However, it does make sense some mining jobs are going overseas because there are less regulatory burdens over there," she said Wednesday.

Bryan said he got involved last fall at the request of Dan Potter, a longtime employee of Battle Mountain Gold.

Potter said he lost his job in October when the company began processing gold-bearing carbon in Canada rather than doing it on site at its Copper Canyon operation in eastern Nevada.

State employment officials estimated 13,500 people were working in the mining industry in Nevada in December 1998, down from an estimated 14,300 the previous year.

The numbers are small compared to the service industry - Nevada's largest employment sector, which grew 19,600 jobs last year to a total of 404,100 in December.

But the layoffs have taken a toll on smaller communities in northern Nevada where mining jobs account for a significant percentage of employment in some towns.

"Rural Nevada is greatly impacted," Rhodes said. "It trickles down to the support industries - all the grocery stores and gas stations because people don't have much to spend."

The federal aid includes everything from career counseling to long-term job training and relocation assistance.

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