Town pays mining giant $2M as part of Red Lady deal

Freeport obviously not focused on a mere $2M

By Mark Reaman

For some, $2 million is apparently the equivalent of chump change found in the couch cushions. The town of Crested Butte had been trying for weeks to cut a $2 million check to global mining giant Freeport McMoRan but paying a paltry couple million dollars to a corporation with a market cap worth $58.3 billion is not easy. Town staff reached out multiple times since August to ask how to deliver the money without getting a detailed response…until Wednesday, September 11.

The payment is part of the deal for the Mount Emmons Mining Company (MEMC), a subsidiary of Freeport, signing a Mineral Extinguishment Agreement which it did at the end of August. That agreement prohibits the company from pursuing mining on their property on Mt. Emmons. 

Town of Crested Butte voters approved the $2 million payment in 2016 by a margin of 962 to 146. The money is to come out of the Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) and was meant to show the community commitment to settle the Red Lady issue and indicate the community had skin in the game. 

The town council officially authorized the payment at the September 3 council meeting after the paperwork prohibiting mining on Red Lady was filed and the Red Lady fight was officially declared over.

“It is a budgeted item, but it is a big check to one of the largest mining companies in the world,” said town manager Dara MacDonald.

 “I just wanted the council to formally see it and approve the resolution” said MacDonald.

They did so unanimously. But after trying several times to contact the company to get wiring instructions or another means of transferring the money, MacDonald had not received instructions on where to send the chunk of change. She finally received a response Wednesday morning, and she immediately initiated the wire transfer to company headquarters…where it might fall between the cushions.

In her memo to the council, MacDonald made clear that after the actions taken on August 29 that included a Mineral Extinguishment agreement, a land swap with the U.S. Forest Service and conservation easements prohibiting mining or development on the MEMC property on Red Lady, “there is effectively no possibility of extraction or development of the molybdenum ore body contained in Mt. Emmons.”

Money well spent.