Brief by Central Staff
Mining -March 2006 -Colorado Central Magazine
Phelps-Dodge, the company that owns the mothballed Climax Molybdenum Mine a dozen miles north of Leadville, still hasn’t announced the results of a consultant’s study it commissioned in 2005 to determine whether to re-open the mine.
The price for molybdenum, a metallic element used as a lubricant and to harden steel, remains high –about $25 a pound at press time, a little under what it was a year ago. But no one knows how long that will last, and the company doesn’t want to spend millions to get the mine running again, only to close it quickly because the moly price has dropped below production costs.
The company has increased production at its Henderson Mine, near Berthoud Pass in Clear Creek County, and it has sold a molybdenum deposit near Crested Butte that it bought in 2004.
That’s the contentious 155-acre Mount Emmons prospect. Crested Butte has opposed its development since the 1970s. It was federal land, but Phelps-Dodge patented it as a mining claim two years ago, and purchased it from the federal government for $875 –the price set by the General Mining Act of 1872. Gunnison County challenged the sale in federal court, and the federal government has responded by saying that the law was followed since the land holds viable mineral deposits.
In February, Phelps-Dodge sold it, and 5,000 nearby acres, to U.S. Energy Corp., based in Riverton, Wyoming. U.S. Energy President Mark Larsen declined to disclose the company’s plans for the property, which could include developing a mine. “The transfer has been a lengthy process,” he said, and “until we take possession of the land, we are not making any public comment.”
Crested Butte Mayor Chris Morgan said “I don’t know if U.S. Energy is any more likely to develop a mine than Phelps-Dodge would. It doesn’t matter who owns the property. If someone attempts to bring the boom-and-bust mining industry to our resort community, I will oppose it.”
It’s highly unlikely that Leadville would oppose a return of the mining industry, which was hinted at by Henderson Mine manager Fred Menzer. “If we put together the resources at Henderson and Climax, we could be producing molybdenum for another 50 years,” he said. And with those developed deposits, “Mount Emmons doesn’t fit in our portfolio.”
