Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. announced Friday that longtime CEO Dennis Wheeler has stepped down. The Idaho-based owner of Juneau’s Kensington Mine named Mitchell J. Krebs, currently Coeur’s chief financial officer, to replace him.

Wheeler has been the chief executive officer for Coeur for nearly 25 years and is credited by those who worked with him locally as the driving force behind developing Kensington.

“Juneau and the Southeast region owe Dennis some thanks,” said Mike Satre, the Juneau-based executive director of the Council of Producers, the trade group for Alaska’s mining companies.

What Wheeler did, say those who have worked with him for years, was to prevail over numerous hurdles to get Kensington permitted and built. That took more than two decades, at a time when business executives increasingly can’t see beyond the next quarterly earnings statement.

“With Dennis you had somebody who had the vision and the fortitude to stick with a project like Kensington through all of its ups and downs,” Satre said.

“He showed an awful lot of tenacity over a lot of years, and ultimately prevailed,” said business leader Bill Corbus, chairman of the companies that own Alaska Electric Light & Power, Alaska Pacific Bank, and has related mining interests.

Kensington came online just about a year ago at a time when gold prices hit record highs.

Since then, gold prices have risen even further, closing near $1,600 per ounce. Coeur recently reported that the mine 45-miles north of downtown Juneau cost $989 per ounce to produce gold, indicating that the decision to invest in Kensington has been a profitable one for Coeur.

Corbus said that might not have happened without both Wheeler’s determination, and the confidence both Coeur’s board and investors had in him.

“It’s difficult to find people who have that kind of staying power, to convince their governing body, their board of directors, they should stay the course,” he said.

“I’ll credit Dennis for that,” he said.

Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, said he first met Wheeler more than 25 years ago while serving on the city’s planning commission when Kensington was first proposed.

“He treated people well, even if you disagreed with him, he’d always listen,” Egan said.

Wheeler cared about the communities in which Coeur did business, and felt a responsibility to treat them well he said, but Juneau owes him a lot as well.

“If it wasn’t for Dennis, I don’t think the mine would be in existence and providing great paying jobs for Juneau, for Southeast Alaska,” he said.

More than just Juneau and Alaska owe something to Wheeler, said Steve Borell, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association.

“What Dennis did was monumental not just for Juneau or Alaska, but for the U.S. as well,” Borell said.

Coeur thought it had a valid method of disposing of its mine tailings in Lower Slate Lake, and environmental groups challenged Coeur in court and won some early victories.

“A lot of people would have just thrown up their hands and said ‘the heck with it,’” Borell said.

Coeur could have used a more expensive disposal method, but Wheeler took the case the U.S. Supreme Court, and won.

That set a standard other mining companies can now rely on for appropriate tailings disposal, he said.

“At each step, at every turn, he made the best economic decision for his company, though oftentimes it went against everybody’s gut feelings and sometimes egos,” Borell said.

Satre said Juneau should be grateful for Wheeler’s commitment to their community.

“Dennis was that special somebody who had a long-term vision for what his company wanted to do,” he said.

“There are easier places to develop mines in the world, but he chose to develop this one here,” Satre said.

Egan said the last time he talked with Wheeler was on a trip to Juneau where he suggested that he might soon retire.

“I hate to see him go, but after 25 years in a high-pressure job like that, I don’t blame him a bit,” Egan said.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.