County commissioners to discuss two mining applications
Mineral exploration public hearing part of Wednesday’s meeting
By Eva Thomas, Telluride Daily Planet
Two new exploratory mining proposals will be discussed Wednesday (today) at the San Miguel Board of County of Commissioners meeting. The 10:10 a.m. public hearing will be a continuation of a March 16 meeting and is scheduled for 75 minutes. One application is for exploratory drilling in Klondike Basin, while the other is a uranium exploratory drilling application in and around Wedding Bell Mountain. Both applications seek the county's approval for a special use permit.
"It's not too often that applications for these types of exploration permits come up," Sheep Mountain Alliance (SMA) Executive Director Mason Osgood explained.
SMA is a local nonprofit committed to protecting and preserving the region's environment and community. SMA sent two public comment letters to the San Miguel County Board of Commissions regarding the proposals.
"We're asking for increased environmental consideration," Osgood said.
The letters regarding Wedding Bell Mine outlined the recreational and environmental impact the project could have on the area.
"The project area provides important habitat to wildlife species of interest, including mountain lion, bighorn, black bear, mule deer, and elk, as well as nongame species and a mature piñon-juniper ecosystem," the March 14 letter stated.
SMA's main concern in the Klondike Basin is the herd of elk that call the area home.
"The general exploration area contains severe winter range for elk and is home to large populations of mule deer and pronghorn, not to mention cattle grazing by a local rancher. Disappointment Valley is part of the Disappointment Creek Elk Herd, as identified by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW)," according to SMA’s March 14 letter in response to the Klondike Basin Mining special use permit application.
The Klondike Basin Mining application was submitted by Tarsis Resources US Inc (US subsidiary of Alianza Minerals Ltd). The drilling would take place from May 1 to Sept. 30. The timing is strategic to minimize interference with the herd, explained John Huebner, San Miguel County’s senior planner on the project.
The project includes approximately 10 holes and 5,500 linear feet of drilling. If approved, Tarsis Resources US Inc would begin to review the minerals at the site.
"They're drilling to put together a sedimentary analysis of the entire hole because of the way they've taken the cuttings out. They will review these at the site, and then they will send portions to a lab to do a chemical analysis on them, and to give them an idea and confirm any guesses they have about what type of copper resource may be available in that area," Huebner said.
Tarsis's ultimate plan is to drill up to 20 sites over a three-year period. If valuable materials are found at the site, it would be up to Tarsis to pursue the next steps.
"They have multiple internal steps that they would have to go through. Is it going to be economically viable? And then they have to decide whether they're going to spend capital. Most importantly, from our end, we have no idea what they would do. If you looked at mineral expert operation throughout the state, nation and world, only a very small percentage, certainly less than one percent of operations like this, are actually developed," Huebner said.
If approved, the applicant anticipates using 250,000 gallons of water throughout the entire project.
Thor Mining LLC is also applying for a mining special use permit for a uranium exploration project in Wedding Bell Mountain. The application is overseen by San Miguel County Senior Planner Troy Hangen.
The site was mined in the 1920s and 1950s, and there is significant scarring from previous projects, so Hangen anticipates there will be "little harm" if approved.
The Wedding Bell Mine project will use a type of drilling called "reverse circulation," Hangen explained.
"(Thor LLC) is only proposing using a few 1,000 gallons, and that's it for the whole project. … They’re going to be exploring and trying to find uranium. They're going down about 80 to 300 feet max, and the process is going to take about four weeks," Hangen said.
The projected start date is April 15, but the applicant will have until September 2022 to complete the project, if approved.
San Miguel County has not received mineral exploration permit applications like Wedding Bell Mine and Klondike Basin submissions since the late 1980s. A special use permit entails access to county roads. The county weed manager will also conduct a pre-survey "for the weed activity, those types of county-centric landform parcels and will also help with recommendation on the native seed mix along with the BLM, and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department," Huebner added.
Wednesday's (today) meeting will be a public discussion regarding the two applications. The decision of approval will also be made during the meeting.
One of the most crucial points to discuss Wednesday, according to Osgood, is reclamation. Mine reclamation is the process of "reclaiming" land that has once been mined and making it economically or ecologically usable and beneficial to the surrounding area.
"With the legacy of mining in our region, reclamation is super important. We are still dealing with reclamation, whether it be on the Valley Floor or different reclamation areas in Ophir Valley," Osgood said. "When we look at reclamation, in the modern age, it's important to push for the best reclamation we can get from an environmental standpoint.”
The meeting agenda and Zoom information can be found on the county website at sanmiguelcountyco.gov.