Trevor Phipps
Uncertainty surrounding the future of the local gold mine ended earlier this year after the announcement was made that SSR Mining (headquartered in Denver) acquired the Cripple Creek-Victor (CC&V) Gold Mine with the deal getting finalized in late February.
Ever since this announcement, the community has been positive about CC&V switching hands from the previous owners (Newmont Mining Company). Newmont, the largest gold mining company in the world, owned the local mine since 2015.
As soon as SSR mining took over the mine, they announced that most employees would be keeping their jobs and mine operations would stay relatively the same. On May 13, the mine held an open house event at the Victor Community Center to introduce themselves and provide more details regarding their future plans. This marked the first official community open house since SSR assumed the reins of the CC&V operation.
The event was informal with some free schwag and food being given away. No official presentation was given, but there was information posted in the room about what the mine has been up to during the second quarter of 2025. Moreover, all of the top officials from the mining company were present to field questions from attendees.
At the open house, there were many familiar faces as most of the mine’s top director positions stayed the same. And according to the mine’s human resources manager, Nick Hendren, the mine actually has started to expand with more employment opportunities. Hendren said that the mine is adding more crews for their daily operations and that more jobs will be opening up in the near future.
More opportunities locally will also come about due to the fact that the mine was purchased by an American company that is based only about 100 miles away. Hendren said that out of the three mines that the Newmont mining company sold at the end of 2024, the CC&V operations was the only one that was purchased by an American-owned company.
All of the open positions can be found on the mine’s website at ssrmining.com/careers. At press time, the mine had nine job openings posted for positions including projects manager, mine maintenance mechanic and contract administrator.
More Mine Employees Move to Teller County
In other good mining news, Hendren said that the make-up of where the mine’s employees live has changed over the last few years. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the mine noticed a shift in where their employees were located.
Before 2020, Hendren said that the locations where the mine’s employees live were basically split across Teller, El Paso and Fremont Counties. At one point in time before the pandemic, the mine had about one third of its employees living in each of the three counties in the region.
But after the pandemic, Hendren said more employees now live in Teller County than in the past. Now, approximately half of the mine’s employees live in Teller County. Hendren said that only about a quarter of the mine’s employees live in El Paso County and a quarter live in Fremont County.
The change in where employees live has also impacted where the mine donates, as their business model aims at giving back to the communities where their employees live. According to the mine’s external relations supervisor Kaitlyn Ragsdale, the change in where employees live has altered the mine’s strategy of where they donate. This could result in more focus on Teller County.
“We focus most of our donations to the school districts in Woodland Park and Cripple Creek with a little bit going to Canon City,” Ragsdale said. “We don’t give much to the Colorado Springs community because we are needed here.”
Cripple Creek-Victor Mine Gives Back $400,000-plus to Community
In 2024, the mine contributed nearly $450,000 to various community projects. Nearly half ($200,000) went to their Community Investment Committee which donates money to dozens of local organizations.
Scholarship monies given out totaled $15,000 for 2024. Area school districts received a total of $50,000, and another $50,000 went for “environmental support” for the Trout Unlimited Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program. In addition, mine employees volunteered for a total of 116 hours.
However, one of the poster boards displayed at the open house did announce that the mine would soon be changing its community investment strategy. By 2026, the mine will be ending all of its event funding as a part of the change.
“Investment strategy aims to reflect a values driven process with a focus on sustainable projects in the community,” the SSR Mining poster board stated. The mine will also now require project process reports at mid-mark and at completion for the projects they choose to fund.
The mine is slated to operate until at least 2031, but SSR officials say that date is likely to be extended even more. Since the price of gold has recently been steadily climbing up, the mine has the ability to expand into areas that weren’t cost-effective to mine in the past.
