The Bureau of Land Management has concluded there is nothing particularly special about the limestone being mined at the Mid-Continent Limestone Quarry a mile above Glenwood Springs. The decision could end a controversial plan by the politically connected mine owner to expand the quarry to 320 acres from about 16 acres.
Rocky Mountain Industrials, which acquired the mine in 2016, is seeking BLM approval to expand the mine, arguing the expanded operation would allow it to mine more high-value, chemical-grade limestone and dolomite. Those are “locatable minerals” under the 1872 Mining Law, which would allow the mining company to proceed with the expansion while paying lower royalty rates and with fewer environmental regulations for accessing valuable minerals on public land.
But the BLM last month finished a Determination of Common Variety study that began in 2019 and found that the minerals in the 44 mining claims owned by Rocky Mountain Industrials are used for asphalt shingles, rip-rap, backfill and construction boulders. That type of use is considered “common variety” and not protected as minerals with “distinct and special value” under the 1872 Mining Act.
(The 152-year-old Mining Act attempted to encourage mining of certain “uncommon varieties” of minerals with “distinct and special value” by increasing incentives and reducing regulatory hurdles.)
A 2022 U.S. District Court ruling that sided with the Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance in its lawsuit against the BLM over enforcement of rules at the Mid-Continent mine, concluding that a mineral deposit can be considered “common variety” if it is sold or used for ordinary purposes like road base and construction. The BLM report issued last month cited that ruling, saying the agency was not relying solely on a chemical analysis of 153 samples of limestone the agency collected from the Mid-Continent quarry — the limestone must have a 95% carbonate measurement to qualify as high-value — to determine whether the mining plan was protected under the Mining Act. The BLM also considered how the Mid-Continent limestone was being used.
The manager of the BLM’s Colorado River Field Office, Larry Sandoval, admitted his decision was “departing from certain BLM precedent” based solely on chemical analysis of limestone.
“In all events, BLM has considered its history of limestone-related adjudications under the Mining Law, and, given the unique and aforementioned conclusions of this report, declines to adopt a strict carbonate threshold for locatability,” Sandoval wrote in his 205-page report.
The Sun obtained a heavily redacted copy of the report through a federal open records request.
Sandoval asked Rocky Mountain Industrials for a detailed accounting of the mine’s sales of high-grade limestone for federally approved runways as well as sales of minerals for asphalt shingles, road base and other uses not protected under the 1872 Mining Act.
Emails to the mining company were not immediately returned.
Rocky Mountain Industrials paid $2.8 million for the mine in 2016 and two years later proposed to increase limestone production to about 5 million tons a year, up from about 60,000 tons a year. The plan calls for increasing the number of trucks traveling from the mine through Glenwood Springs to as many as 400 a day, up from about 20.
The Determination of Common Variety decision is yet another blow for Rocky Mountain Industrials. A rockslide buried the quarry in January 2023 and temporarily halted mining operations. The company lost its lawsuit and appeal challenging Garfield County’s authority to impose a seasonal restriction on mining at the quarry.
The company, which formed in 2012 in Nevada with the purchase of an online yearbook company and in 2018 launched plans for a 620-acre rail terminal park east of Denver International Airport, told investors in November it had lost $67.5 million since its inception.
The company’s founder and chairman is Chad Brownstein, the son of politically connected Colorado attorney Norm Brownstein, whose Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm lobbies for high-profile natural resources and finance companies. When Rocky Mountain Industrials first sought BLM approval for the Glenwood Springs mine expansion, the Secretary of the Interior was David Bernhardt, who had most recently worked as a lobbyist for the law firm.
The Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance formed in 2018 to fight the mine expansion plan. It sued the BLM in 2020, arguing the agency was not properly regulating mine operations.
Jeff Peterson, the president of the alliance, in a statement called the Determination of Common Variety report “a big setback for RMI and a tremendous step forward for the citizens’ alliance and Glenwood Springs.”