The poster's "peer" is probably wordsoffun on SH, who posted basically the same information as well as some pictures.

Here's the post:

Just got back from Melba and war eagle mine area. I was unable to get to the mines because of the snow that still has the road closed. I took some pictures of the area and some indications of recent road work (last year). I also stopped by the mill and took some more pictures. Note the date on the paper. No work has been done here- nothing. Stopped by City Hall and talked to City worker that states NO! Permits of any kind have been turned into the city for the work that needs to be done at the Melba Mill site. She did say that, through word of mouth, she had heard that the owner had been to the mill, but he did not stop by city hall. And yes all permits have to go through the city first and than to the city engineer. Note that the road is close to the mines, and will not be ready to drive on for some time.

Here's the link to the pictures:

http://s640.photobucket.com/albums/u...

Looks as if there are still a few pieces of equipment outside- a conveyor belt system and a couple of other components. If you look at the older pictures of the interior of the mill in the photo galleries on the SFMI web site, there are obviously a lot of component pieces that are not outside. I also seem to remember pictures posted a while ago that showed many more pieces of equipment outside, which would imply that much has been moved back inside. The pieces remaining outside look like modular pieces that could be installed fairly quickly. That's assuming, of course, that they are to be re-installed. They could be the pieces that were upgraded when SFMI decided to increase the mill capacity. Is there someone more familiar with this equipment that could comment?

As far as the comments made by the other poster on the permits, I can't imagine that unpermitted work of that nature would go unnoticed in a small town.