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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (2666)	6/16/2007 3:49:48 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193686

Mining CEOs dig up big bucks gvnews.com By Tim Hull, Special to the Green Valley News Tuesday, June 12, 2007 10:48 PM MDT Mining may no longer rule in Arizona as it once did, but it’s still a pretty good way to make a buck—especially if you’re the boss. James R. Moffett, chairman of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, made $32.8 million in 2006, and CEO Richard Adkerson made $24.6 million in salary, stock awards, cash incentives, and other benefits, according to The Associated Press. Freeport-McMoRan recently spent about $26 billion to buy Arizona mining giant Phelps Dodge, which operates the local Sierrita Mine, making Freeport the largest publicly traded copper mining company on the globe. Since the acquisition became final in March, Freeport’s stock has gone up by some 39 percent. Former Phelps Dodge CEO J. Steve Whisler made significantly less than his Freeport counterparts, the AP reported. Whisler, who retired in March after the takeover, made $8.1 million in 2006. Of course, mining industry salaries tend to decrease the closer a worker gets to the pit and the dust. Average base pay for a haul truck driver at the Sierrita Mine ranges from $18.50 to $19 an hour, said Ken Vaughn, a Freeport corporate spokesman. A shovel operator makes between $19.50 and $24.40 an hour, as does a journeyman mechanic at the mine. “Many employees in these jobs typically earn more than base with the addition of overtime and shift differential,” Vaughn explained. Up in the offices, the engineers, who go through years of college to earn their positions, make anywhere from $49,600 to $85,600 a year, depending on experience and skills. While such figures are dwarfed by what the CEOs make, both the pit workers and the engineers at Sierrita make significantly more than most other workers in the Santa Cruz Valley, which, like much of Arizona, has a largely service industry-based economy. Haul truck drivers, shovel operators, and mechanics make about as much as a teacher in early-to-mid career at the Sahuarita Unified School District. The absence of such high-paying, blue-collar jobs in the area was recently used as justification for building a new mine east of Green Valley in the Rosemont Valley. Officials with Canadian-based mining concern Augusta Resource Corp. repeated the high-pay gospel many times during hearings and public meetings on the proposed Rosemont Mine last winter. With copper prices remaining high and a worldwide building boom still in progress, competition for skilled mine workers is getting fierce—just ask bankrupt mining giant Asarco, which operates the local Mission Mine. A bankruptcy judge last week said Asarco could pay some $11.3 million in extra wages and bonuses to keep salaried workers from hiring on with a competitor like Freeport. Asarco has lost more than 122 skilled employees to competitors since January 2006, AP reported. Meanwhile, if all goes according to industry plans and prices stay high, there will be many more high-paying copper industry jobs in Arizona in the coming years. Mining companies such as Freeport, BHP, and several smaller Canadian ones are planning to open new mines and reopen moth-balled mines in the Globe-Miami area and in several other regions that have felt the boom and bust cycles of Arizona’s mining industry before. Tim Hull is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.