Montana Awarded $3.5 Million Federal Grant to Help Laid Off Sibanye-Stillwater Mine Workers
By Blair Miller for the Daily Montanan
Montana’s top Republican officials announced Thursday the U.S. Department of Labor had awarded the state with a $3.5 million grant to help the 700 workers laid off earlier this year from the Sibanye-Stillwater Mine receive training to move into new jobs in new fields.
The Montana Department of Labor and Industry and Governor Greg Gianforte in early November submitted a grant proposal for $11.5 million in National Dislocated Worker Grant funding as the layoffs, announced in September due in part to a steep drop in palladium prices, were set to take effect.
While the department only awarded $3.5 million of that request, the Montana Department of Labor and Industry’s commissioner said the grant would be beneficial in helping laid-off workers in 10 counties add new skills, pursue education or enroll in apprenticeships.
“This is a meaningful win for the affected workers, their families, and the entire state,” DLI Commissioner Sarah Swanson said. “The layoff at the Stillwater mine is the largest in recent memory, affecting hundreds of families and severely impacting many communities.”
National Dislocated Worker Grants are awarded to areas that experience major layoffs to stabilize the local economy and to get workers back on their feet.
The DLI said in September the 700 jobs accounted for about 13% of all payroll jobs in Stillwater and Sweet Grass counties, about 20% of those counties’ wages, and about 16% of statewide mining jobs. A spokesperson for the mining company estimated average salaries at the mine were about $110,000.
About three-quarters of the company’s production at its Montana operations, centered near Columbus, is palladium, whose prices fell from $2,305 per ounce two years ago to below $1,000 an ounce earlier this year. It was priced at $907 per ounce as of Thursday.
The company said those price dips have cost the Montana operations about $350 million from the start of 2023 through the middle of this year, and blamed Russia for inundating the global palladium market to crash American palladium prices. Palladium is used in catalytic converters, dental fillings, aircraft spark plugs, and jewelry, among other things.
When the layoffs were announced, U.S. Sensators Jon Tester and Steve Daines introduced separate but similar bills seeking to prohibit U.S. companies and consumers from importing palladium from Russia. The Department of Labor and Industry opened Job Service Centers in the region to help workers as they learned they would be laid off in November as it crafted its proposal for the National Dislocated Worker Grants.
In late October, the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service finalized rules for a manufacturing tax credit both senators had been pushing for that allows companies that mine critical minerals, including palladium and platinum, access to a 10% tax credit. The company said that should help stabilize its U.S. operations and move back toward long-term viability.
Gianforte said Thursday he was grateful for the grant funding and called it “important relief” for the hundreds affected by the layoffs.
“While more work remains, the State of Montana will continue to come alongside these workers and their families to help them navigate this transition in their lives,” he said in a statement.
Daines and U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, said they were thankful for the funding but said there was still work to be done to help the workers affected and the mining industry in Montana as a whole.
“I’m glad to see this much needed relief is coming; however, it is not nearly enough to fill the need requested by the state,” Zinke said in a statement. “This funding is a good start, but much more help is needed. In addition to this bridge funding, Montana miners need better policy to prevent these job losses in the first place, which is why Senator Daines and I are pushing common sense legislation to prevent Russia from manipulating our critical minerals markets and save Montana jobs.”
Gee, Republicans, isn't taking federal money socialism? And Daines is concerned about Russia. Then perhaps he should stop cozying up to murderous dictator Putin.