In and about 1980, the press, politicos and the public in Maine were watching the Bald Mountain drama unfold. As a result, it must strike some of your readers as odd that a few years later that “prize” was raffled off for a paltry $2 million.

With that having been said, it is fair to say I barely recognize the Bald Mountain copper-zinc-gold-silver deposit from statements contained in the Bangor Daily News article of May 25.

The sentence near the end of the article, which states, “Some companies have desired the gold and silver, others have been more interested in the copper ore,” shows how lack of knowledge and time have conspired to diminish this great deposit.

The Bald Mountain discovery in 1977 revealed a world-class deposit which contained copper and zinc valued at more than $2 billion, and by-product gold and silver valued at about $50 million.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Land Use Regulation Commission fatally hobbled the orderly development of this magnificent deposit with regulatory “overkill.” When it was evident mining of the Bald Mountain deposit would not be possible in the foreseeable future, the value of the deposit was reduced from “billions” to virtually nothing. As a result, the majors walked away and left Bald Mountain to the gold scavengers.

Black Hawk Mining Co. never intended, nor was it prepared, to mine “The Bald Mountain Deposit.” Its intentions were limited to the so-called “gold gossan” which represents only a tiny fraction of the main ore body. J.S. Cummings Port St. Lucie, Fla.