On Wednesday evening, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management released a redacted copy of its long-awaited Determination of Common Variety report for the Rocky Mountain Industrials limestone mine, according to a Glenwood Springs Citizen’s Alliance news release.
The Determination of Common Variety report (DCV) shows that the majority of limestone sales from RMI’s quarry and for its proposed mine expansion fail to qualify under the Mining Law of 1872.
“The Citizens’ Alliance has contended for years that RMI has been mining limestone for purposes far afield from its permit for mining on federal land, which is based on a narrow list of uses allowed under the Mining Law of 1872,” the release states.
“BLM has determined that a majority of the material is not disposable under the Mining Law of 1872 because of being marketed for common purposes,” BLM Field Manager Larry Sandoval said in a statement last Thursday.
The DCV report states on page 47 that RMI’s expansion proposal “provided no evidence or data that substantiates that this [limestone] deposit has unique or special properties that set it apart from other deposits that are used for aggregate for the same purposes.”
Citizens’ Alliance President Jeff Peterson said that the agency’s position marks a pivotal point in its review of current mining at the Transfer Trail quarry and of RMI’s massive proposed mine expansion, according to the release.
“If RMI’s end uses for the mined limestone had qualified under the 1872 Mining Law, the company would have few regulatory limits on environmental and economic impacts, and would have no obligation to pay royalties on its sales,” the release states.
The DCV disqualifies almost all end uses put forth by RMI, such as rock dust for coal mines, road base, rip-rap, structural boulders and chicken grit. Mining and sales of these non-qualifying uses would need to be approved under a BLM mineral sales contract, according to the release.
According to the Citizens’ Alliance, a cover letter to the DCV calling on the company to tally the funds in an escrow account established in 2019 was addressed to RMI Vice President Robert Wagner and signed by BLM Field Manager Larry Sandoval. The letter gives RMI until Feb. 25 to remit to BLM the escrowed payments for all sales that don’t qualify under the Mining Law.
In addition to offering justification against RMI’s claim that mining laws secure their right to expansion, the Citizens’ Alliance said the background offered in the DCV provides arguments against the mine altogether.
The purpose for the quarry from its beginning in 1982, according to the DCV, was solely for rock dust, used to suppress methane eruptions in the underground coal mines near Redstone, according to the release.
“With the DCV’s findings in hand, it appears that original mine approvals from 1982 are no longer valid,” Peterson said in the news release. “Mining should be halted unless RMI obtains a federal mineral sales contract and resolves its other permit noncompliance problems.”
Read More: BLM releases determination report on limestone mine, disqualifies mined