Revett's new chairman of the board hails from Troy

As approximately 180 Troy Mine workers toil underground, board members for the mine’s parent company, Revett Minerals, make all of the mine’s major decisions from an office in Spokane Valley, Wash.

Knowing that, Troy Mine workers and their families may be interested to learn that the board’s newest member, Tim Lindsey, wants the mine to succeed for reasons that transcend monetary gain.

“I want to see this area prosper,” Lindsey said. “My wife and I are Troy High School graduates. Our families have been here forever, and we consider this home no matter if we’re living in Wyoming, Colorado or Texas.”

Lindsey became the company’s chairman of the board of directors last week after becoming directly involved in Revett only three months prior.

He sometimes looks out at Mount Vernon from his home on Bull Lake, where he lives about four months a year, and thinks about the people working underneath the mountain. He grew up with some of the miners and said he values them all.

“Revett is not some faceless corporation sitting on Manhattan,” Lindsey said. “The guts of it are right here working (at Troy Mine).”

Lindsey reminisces about the days when logging jobs were plentiful in Troy, and he is aware of what closure of the mine would do to the area’s economy. When Revett was coping with cash-flow problems in January due to five-year record low metal prices, Lindsey invested.

“My No. 1 goal was to keep 180 people drawing a paycheck,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey has been interested in the Troy Mine since the 1970s, before it was a mine and even longer before Revett owned it. He had a hand in mineral exploration under Mount Vernon, and worked underground in the mine’s south adit. He was a project geologist for Asarco, mostly at Rock Creek, before it sold to Revett. In addition, his master’s thesis was related to mining in northwest Montana.

Lindsey kept up-to-date on Revett news and consulted with the company on a friendly basis before he became directly involved.

“I was eager enough to have a stack 10 inches tall in writings of various sorts – editorials and articles – about the mine,” Lindsey said. “I’ve always kept track of what’s going on in there.”

Lindsey believes that his deep roots in Troy will be advantageous to the company’s objectives of extending the life of Troy Mine and pushing the Rock Creek Project to the development stage.

“Let’s say there was an obstruction element somewhere – environmental or whatever,” Lindsey said. “I would find it a great challenge for them to tell me how it is to live here because, after all, I do live here.”

Lindsey has spent most of his professional career in oil and gas enterprises, and he currently sits on three other publicly traded company boards.

Though he admits he could have done without more work, Troy holds a special place in his heart, and he couldn’t turn down the offer. 

“You’re driven by your passions,” he said. “I can’t make a difference if I don’t participate, so I’m willing to put the time in.”

As part of Revett’s restructuring, John Shanahan’s title of president and chief executive officer changed from interim to permanent, and he no longer serves dually as chairman of the board. In addition, Louis Gignac resigned from the board due to demands of a project in West Africa.