Letter from Dave Delling
Mining – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ed:
I enjoyed your May issue very much but especially the two articles on the proposed mica mine on Poncha Pass. Your article presented a realistic and balanced appraisal of what might be expected if this early stage exploration project ever developed into anything. That’s unlikely since most mineral exploration projects never get beyond that stage based on technical issues alone. You put it all in perspective.
Hal Walter’s article was a naive joke. Can he really believe that the price of a commodity to be produced dictates the economics of the undertaking? There’s a lot more successful gravel pits in Colorado than gold mines. Why, if his notion was true, shouldn’t all the potato farmers in the San Luis Valley set up tin sheds and start cultivating lobsters? They go for ten bucks a pound and that sure beats potatoes.
After all the whining about things happening in their back yards, property owners in Colorado and other western states should understand that it is their responsibility to know who owns the mineral rights under their property. Often the Federal government retains the mineral rights which may be open to leasing or location by mining claims. Mineral rights may also be held by the state, private owners or claimants, or they may have been withdrawn by the government. Anyway, it’s called due diligence to know and to understand what could happen in your yard or neighborhood.
Walter has trouble with arithmetic too. Five hundred gallons of water an hour for 25 years is really 109.5 million gallons. This equals an annual usage of about 14 acre-feet which might irrigate 40 acres or so of alfalfa. That’s a lot in terms of the usage of a single house but it’s a drop in the bucket in agricultural terms.
Walter seems to think that the purpose of the regulatory process is to stop things you don’t like. Well, I think the process is to insure that projects, be they roads, dams, airports, events, mines, or whatever proceed in a manner that is compatible with the safety and needs of contemporary society and in full compliance with existing regulations. Sure, the cost of compliance may kill some projects or cause them to be reconfigured but that’s not the overriding purpose of regulations.
Meanwhile, the regulatory process keeps expanding. For instance, I know some people — admittedly from the anti cock-fighting, anti rodeo etc. set — who think burro racing amounts to cruelty to animals. They think it should be tightly regulated at least on public roads and land. But that’s another story.
Dave Delling
Dave Delling is a retired miner who splits his time between Taos and Westcliffe where he irrigates pasture when water is available.