The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
HCCA seems to not trust mining company motives…
The town of Crested Butte has sent a letter to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety stating several concerns with a proposal filed last month by the potential developers of the Mount Emmons molybdenum mine.
The town sent the letter last Friday, January 22 in response to a request filed by U.S. Energy on December 23 to modify its 2007 application to do some drift work beneath Mt. Emmons. A drift is essentially a tunnel burrowed into the mountain.
“We filed a modification to an existing NOI [Notice of Intent] application,” explained Mt. Emmons Moly Company Director of Community Relations Perry Anderson. “It is a perfunctory modification to allow for some rehabilitation to the current NOI request. There is no action or activity that is imminent at this time. If and when it becomes an issue, when Thompson Creek decides to go to the next phase, we will fully vet it with the regulating agencies and the public.”
Crested Butte Town Manager Susan Parker signed and sent a letter to the state mining agency, making it clear that the town should be kept in the loop if any construction takes place on the existing drift, or on a new drift. The town’s watershed ordinance applies to activity even outside the town’s boundaries.
“The town has significant concern over the impacts that USE’s activities could have on the Town’s water, principally, hydrology, supply and quality,” the letter states. “And, USE may be required under the Ordinance to obtain a permit, depending on certain factors.”
The letter claims, “The activity will take place within the Town’s Watershed Protection District and should come under the Crested Butte watershed ordinance… Simply put, this vague description does not provide sufficient detail for a review of the impacts of the proposed activities. This approach also runs contrary to the Mineral Rules.”
The High Country Citizens’ Alliance (HCCA), an environmental organization opposed to the proposed mining operation, feels the December amendment to the NOI was meant to be covert.
In the group’s January 2010 Program Update, HCCA says, “In late December the Mt. Emmons Project picked up right where the former Lucky Jack Project left off in 2008—by very quietly seeking renewed permission from the State of Colorado to construct a new mining tunnel on Mt. Emmons. In a December 23, 2009 letter to the state mining agency, the Mt. Emmons Project requested permission to either reconstruct old mining tunnels at the Keystone Mine, or if conditions warrant, to construct an entirely new tunnel into the mountain.”
HCCA says, “We think it is the same attempt to begin mine development under the false pretense of prospecting for minerals. This time, however, the proposal can’t be kept a secret and we can once again demand that the tunnel be permitted as mining and given a thorough environmental review. “
Anderson says the NOI filed in 2007 requested a new drift, and this recent request was made to simply modify that application.
Anderson said the intent is to be ready if and when a mining operation gears up. “Right now, it is very preliminary and we are just looking ahead,” he said. “It is for if and when we move beyond the phase of pre-feasibility studies, and that will be in 2011 at the earliest.”
But the town reiterated its concern with the proposed changes by the mining company. According to the letter to the state, “the current proposal for modification consists of a one-page letter stating only that ‘the intent of this No. 3 modification is to change text references from solely developing a new drift parallel to the existing 2000 Drift to rehabilitating the 2000 Drift, and developing a new parallel drift, as needed, to provide safe access to the existing underground plug.’ This proposed change… appears to also involve potentially significant changes in the nature and scope of the activities proposed, and a commensurate change in potential impacts.”
The current drift constructed into Mt. Emmons is about eight feet by eight feet and, Anderson said, goes about 4,500 feet into the mountain. He believes it was constructed sometime in the 1970s.
