Big Mine Closing Update:

From the Kingman Daily Miner:
Bankrupt Mineral Park mine shut down operations Monday and some 400 to 500 workers were laid off just a few days after Christmas, an employee told the Daily Miner.
Phone calls to Vancouver, B.C.-based Mercator Minerals, parent company of Mineral Park Inc., were not returned.
Mineral Park, which is located about 15 miles north of Kingman east of U.S. 93, had been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization since August. The mine cut 10 percent of its workforce last year after missing deadlines on $4.8 million in payments.
In September, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware ordered Mineral Park to set up a separate account of $1.04 million to continue utility service. That's roughly half of the mine's monthly utility bills, which include $1.3 million paid to BP Energy for natural gas, $503,299 to Unisource for mine site power and $103,805 to Pioneer Valley Water Co. for water.  http://kdminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=797&ArticleID=64272
People say they didn't see this coming, but about a month or so ago, there is another mine in Arizona that was heavily advertising for mine workers to go their mine.  I thought that was kind of strange, but apparently this company knew what was going on and was trying to poach some workers from the Mineral Park Mine.