Bunker Hill owner Bob Hopper dies
KELLOGG - The mining community of the Silver Valley is in mourning this week as a mining icon, working man and friend passed away Tuesday.
Robert (Bob) Hopper, owner of the Bunker Hill mine and vocal opponent of the Environmental Protection Agency's continued presence in the Silver Valley, died in Coeur d'Alene, leaving behind his legacy and a great void as a member of the Silver Valley community.
"He was a great man," said Justin Rice, formerly chairman and CEO of Coeur d'Alene mines for approximately 30 years. Most recently he ventured further into mining in the Silver Valley with Silver Royal Apex. "We lost a great man and a dear friend."
Rice met Hopper years ago, when Hopper took over the Bunker Hill mine in the early 1990s. A science committee had formed to critique the EPA, meeting every couple of weeks, and through their mutual passion for the mining industry the two kept a relationship going through the years. Hopper's continued dedication to his fight against the EPA continued as passionately as it began as years passed with the agency's presence still in the valley.
"He's going to be greatly missed," Rice said. "His leadership - he fought a valiant fight there and we're not finished yet."
The EPA, according to Rice, makes its own laws with no consideration for science, and to lose Hopper in the midst of the current battle is a tremendous blow.
"Hopefully people band together and attempt to see to it that the EPA does not push us around any longer," Rice said. "That would be a great tribute to him."
Not only was Hopper a monumental figure within the mining industry, but a key member of the Silver Valley community. If he knew an issue was in needing of being fixed, Rice said Hopper would do what he could to work and resolve that issue.
"I was just shocked that he passed away, although I know that he had been very ill in recent times," Rice said.
Hopper was a man without equal, according to David Bond, a mining journalist in the Silver Valley.
"The people, especially in Kellogg, (had) no idea of the giant in their midst," Bond said. "And we were all lucky to have known him."
The two met through Ric Clarke, who used to be an editor at The Coeur d'Alene Press. Bond had been assigned to do a story on Hopper as he sampled the walls of the Old Mission for lead content in his fight against the EPA. Bond and Hopper sat down for a one-hour interview, which ended up turning into a day of scholarly conversation and a lasting friendship.
Bond described Hopper as a self-taught, hugely literate intellectual, and found during their years of friendship that Hopper's heart and principles were on the same elevated level.
What does Hopper leave behind?
"Other than Bunker Hill? The knowledge that we are a free people, and that there are certain laws on the books that protect us from the 'kings,'" Bond said. "His consummate kindness will not be equalled in my lifetime nor in the lifetime of the Silver Valley. He was a giant amongst men."
The future of the Bunker Hill mine may rest with Hopper's sons, but Bond hopes that Hopper's hard work and legacy lives on through the mine, the essence of Bob Hopper.
Bond would like to see Bunker Hill one day become what Hopper worked day-in and day-out to create - in Hopper's words that first day they met, 'the shining city on the hill.'