The proprietor of a limestone quarry above Glenwood Springs has spent a number of years arguing that its contentious plan for an exponential growth of the mine must be expedited beneath the 1872 Mining Act, which reduces regulatory hurdles to encourage mining of unusual minerals with distinct values.
It seems, the corporate that owns the Mid-Continent Limestone Quarry a mile above Glenwood Springs has not been in a position to show it’s promoting useful limestone. And the Division of the Inside final week mentioned it should apply for a brand new allow — with extra strict environmental scrutiny — to proceed working the 16-acre quarry on a ridge above city.
It’s the most recent hurdle — and probably a deadly blow — for a money-losing mining firm with large plans.
The Inside Division on Jan. 3 despatched a letter to Greenwood Village-based Rocky Mountain Industrials, or RMI, saying that the company has decided it’s mining “frequent selection” limestone on the quarry, which isn’t approved, and the corporate should cease operations and pay the federal government royalties for the worth of the minerals it has mined over the previous six years.
The corporate purchased the mine in 2016 and two years later introduced plans to increase to greater than 400 acres. RMI argued that the 1872 Mining Act ought to permit the corporate’s expanded mining of high-grade limestone to proceed whereas paying decrease royalty charges and dealing with fewer environmental rules.
The growth plan has confronted ardent native opposition, with few wins for the mining firm, which additionally owns a 620-acre rail terminal park east of Denver Worldwide Airport. The corporate’s bigger plan is to ship limestone for concrete from Glenwood Springs to the railpark to be used in Entrance Vary initiatives.
A 12 months in the past the Bureau of Land Administration, which is reviewing the RMI growth plan, decided there was nothing notably particular concerning the limestone being mined on the Mid-Continent Quarry. The company’s 205-page Dedication of Frequent Selection research, which started in 2019, discovered that minerals mined from 44 mining claims owned by RMI have been used for asphalt shingles, rip-rap, backfill and development boulders. That use is taken into account “frequent selection” and never protected by the 1872 Mining Act.
However the supervisor of the BLM’s Colorado River Area Workplace, Larry Sandoval, mentioned RMI might show the limestone was high-grade with an in depth accounting of its gross sales of the limestone. Based on the latest letter from the Inside Division, the corporate was unable to supply proof it was promoting high-grade limestone for issues like airport runways. The corporate did present a 2021 market research that proposed the mine would promote limestone for cement, however that will require transport the limestone by practice to manufacturing vegetation serving the Entrance Vary.
“So far, BLM has not obtained important proof from RMI that it has taken steps to determine market entry for cement, together with securing metropolis and county permits that could be required to entry rail loadout services from the mine,” reads the Jan. 3 letter from Steven Feldgus, the deputy assistant secretary of land and minerals administration with the Inside Division.
Feldgus mentioned the corporate owes royalty funds for the frequent limestone it has mined in the course of the six years of the BLM research.
“This resolution affirms the basic argument we now have been making in federal court docket: that RMI has been mining and promoting limestone from our public lands for finish makes use of that aren’t allowed beneath its federal mining allow,” mentioned Jeff Peterson, the top of the Glenwood Springs Residents’ Alliance, in a press release.
The alliance, which had led the struggle in opposition to the mine growth, and Garfield County commissioners sued the BLM in 2020 in U.S. District Courtroom in Denver arguing the company was not correctly imposing rules across the mine. RMI sued Garfield County arguing the federal authorities, not the county, must be in control of regulating the mine. A Garfield County decide threw out RMI’s lawsuit in 2021.
The BLM has served RMI with notices that it’s out of compliance with a number of rules on the mine. In January 2023, a large rockslide on the quarry halted operations and led the corporate to request a allow modification from the BLM to permit it to work across the rockslide. The letter from Feldgus didn’t handle the growth plan, the noncompliance points or the allow change from the rockslide.
Rocky Mountain Industrials paid $2.8 million for the quarry in 2016 and two years later proposed growing limestone manufacturing to five million tons a 12 months for 20 years, up from about 60,000 tons a 12 months. The corporate’s plan would route as many as 400 vans a day by way of city, up from about 20. RMI on the finish of 2023 reported belongings of $7 million and money owed of $8.4 million, following a lack of $4 million within the final 9 months of 2023. That’s down from a lack of $6.4 million in the identical 9 months of 2022. For the reason that firm first fashioned in 2014 it has collected losses of $69.1 million.
“The town of Glenwood Springs has lengthy been against the growth of the Mid-Continent Limestone Quarry and is glad to see the Division of the Inside taking decisive motion right here to indicate that the mine is nothing particular and must be regulated similar to every other quarry in Garfield County — not like a gold or lithium mine that gives important minerals,” Mayor Ingrid Wussow mentioned in an emailed assertion. “The mine stays in noncompliance with a number of federal mining rules and we urge the Bureau of Land Administration to implement the legal guidelines which can be on the books. We thank Garfield County and the Glenwood Springs Residents Alliance for his or her management within the federal courts and look ahead to persevering with our partnership to make sure that this resolution stands.”