{"id":24811,"date":"2024-11-14T19:21:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T02:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-people-in-mancos-think-about-mining-in-the-la-platas\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:02:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:02:37","slug":"what-people-in-mancos-think-about-mining-in-the-la-platas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-people-in-mancos-think-about-mining-in-the-la-platas\/","title":{"rendered":"What people in Mancos think about mining in the La Platas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Community
Community members gather in the Mancos Community Center on Nov. 8 to talk with Metallic Minerals Corp. about the exploration work they\u2019re doing and the possibility of mining in the La Plata Mountains. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

After a heated meeting in Breen the day before, a company performing exploratory drilling in the La Plata Canyon visited Mancos for an open house at its community center on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n

The event was billed as \u201cAn Introduction to the La Plata Project,\u201d and it didn\u2019t take long for the room to fill with concerned, curious community members.<\/p>\n

Back in 2019, Metallic Minerals Corp. \u2013 the Canadian company doing the exploring \u2013 bought patented mineral rights in the La Plata Canyon because of its \u201cgeologic potential,\u201d said Scott Petsel, the company\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

The 1.2 billion pounds of copper they found near Bedrock Creek \u201cwas discovered in the 1950s and 1970s by companies that drilled over 50 holes in that time period,\u201d Petsel said.<\/p>\n

\"Some
Some of the drill cores, halved, that Metallic Minerals Corp. has extracted from the La Platas in search for \u201ceconomic\u201dcopper. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

To inform that figure, the company is using the historical information, coupled with eight more drill cores the company extracted between 2019 and 2023, Petsel said. The cores are 2 inches in diameter and up to 4,900 feet deep.<\/p>\n

With copper at $4 a pound, there\u2019s more than $4 billion of metal in the ground.<\/p>\n

Although that sounds like a lot, it\u2019s not considered \u201ceconomical\u201d because it\u2019s not concentrated. It\u2019s not enough for a company to come in and start mining it, a sentiment all three representatives from Mining Minerals emphasized at the open house.<\/p>\n

Still, the community voiced concerns over that possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about water \u2013 we recognize that,\u201d Petsel said.<\/p>\n

To do their exploratory drilling, Metallic Minerals uses anywhere from 250 to 500 gallons of water a day.<\/p>\n

Because the company doesn\u2019t have water rights in the Mancos River, that water is hauled from Durango and recirculated in small ponds onsite.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also doing baseline water testing in the East Mancos basin and La Plata Basin, and have been since they began exploring in the area in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not required to do water quality testing \u2013 I know that sounds crazy \u2013 but we believe that\u2019s best practices,\u201d said Logan Powell, the company\u2019s project manager.<\/p>\n

Bryan Eisenbraun, the external relations manager for the La Plata Project, added that community members can participate in such testing, in an effort to mitigate concerns.<\/p>\n

Petsel made it clear they are just exploring; Metallic Minerals would not mine it.<\/p>\n

Instead, their goal is \u201cto continue drilling holes, maybe 10,000 meters a year, 20 holes at best, for the next several years\u201d said Petsel. \u201cWe may or may not be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t curb concerns, because Denver-based Newmont Corp. has a 9.5% stake in the publicly traded company. Last year, Newmont bought Australia-based Newcrest Mining and is now considered the world largest gold miner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just an investor at this point,\u201d said Petsel. \u201cWe like them as a partner because they have deep pockets, and they have an interest in what we\u2019re doing, but there\u2019s no guarantee they\u2019d be the miner, and there\u2019s no plan for mining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scott
Scott Petsel (left) and Bryan Eisenbraun (right) answer questions about exploration work Metallic Minerals Corp. is doing. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In New South Wales, the Newcrest-operated gold mine emitted dust with heavy metals in it, over 11 times the legal limit, according to an article in The Guardian<\/em><\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

David Mallin of Mancos criticized Newcrest for its mining operations in Peru, Ghana, South Africa and Indonesia, saying that it has harassed locals and \u201cspilled cyanide and mercury into the watersheds, they\u2019ve caused environmental degradation and handle protesters violently.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Peru, for instance, there\u2019s an ongoing case against Newmont and the Chaupe family. Since 2011, Newmont has tried to evict the family from their farm since it conflicts with a mining project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chaupes allege that they have been physically attacked and threatened, and that Newmont\u2019s agents have destroyed their property and possessions, and killed or attacked their pets and livestock,\u201d according to an article by EarthRights International.<\/a><\/p>\n

Petsel defended Newmont, citing its work at the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Newmont has a terrible reputation in other places, but I think at least for their work in Colorado, and as a Colorado-based company, my experience is they actually have a pretty good reputation around the world,\u201d said Petsel. \u201cIf they didn\u2019t, they wouldn\u2019t be the world\u2019s largest gold mining company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petsel said establishing a copper mine is usually a 29-year conversation anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of thing that was mentioned at the last meeting was, \u2018Oh, we won\u2019t be doing actual mining operations for 20 years, so don\u2019t worry,\u2019\u201d said Mallin. \u201cThere\u2019s children, grandchildren; I\u2019m worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another point of contention involved whether Native American tribes have had input.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not yet been in touch with the Navajo Nation. We definitely intend to go there, as soon as we can,\u201d Eisenbraun said.<\/p>\n

In the La Plata Mountains, the tallest peak in the range is Mount Hesperus (Dib\u00e9 Nitsaa), which is one of the Four Sacred Mountains of the Navajo. The other three are Blanca Peak (Sisnaajin\u00ed) in the east, Mount Taylor (Tsoodzi\u0142) in the south and San Francisco Peak (Dook\u2019o\u2019oos\u0142\u00ed\u00edd) in the west.<\/p>\n

Essentially, in the Navajo creation story, the creator put them \u201con land between four mountains, representing the four cardinal directions,\u201d according to the Decolonial Atlas.<\/p>\n

Hesperus is the northern sacred mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sacred Navajo mountain in La Plata Canyon, and you\u2019ve been in there since 2019,\u201d said one community member. \u201cI\u2019m surprised it\u2019s just coming up now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eisenbraun said they gave a tour, in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, to a few members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, based in Towaoc. They have not yet contacted the Jicarilla Apache tribe, but intend to, as Mount Blanca is culturally significant to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re definitely equal stakeholders in all of this, and their concerns for the lands and water are beyond important,\u201d Eisenbraun said.<\/p>\n

Some in the audience asked whether public access to the area would be restricted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s going to be land that\u2019s going to get developed, and it\u2019s not going to be available for public use. That\u2019s one of the things that happens with development,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n

Petsel said closures likely would be temporary. More permanent closures, which could happen in the event of mining operations \u2013 might be supplemented by a new ski lift or something of that nature, Petsel said.<\/p>\n

When asked what the \u201cextent of damage to our La Platas\u201d would be, Petsel said it\u2019s minimal \u2013 maybe some road stems off existing Forest Service roads and traffic to the drill site.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do envision the idea of a mine coexisting with all the community interests,\u201d said Petsel. \u201cIn my career, I\u2019ve seen it over and over again, where mines and communities coexist to the benefit of those communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

And \u201cas a society, you mine or you die. That\u2019s as blunt as it comes down to,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we going to ask others to take on that risk, or are we going to do it ourselves and make sure it\u2019s done right and be a leader in the industry and make sure it\u2019s done right. Because otherwise it\u2019s going to be done wrong, in some developing country somewhere,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n

Aaron Engers, who lives in Mancos, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are things we need to support our modern life. It\u2019s only right to do it ourselves,\u201d Engers said.<\/p>\n

Petsel added that the administration of President Joe Biden was interested in recognizing domestic sources of things like copper as to not disturb the supply chain, \u201cas we saw during the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, \u201cthe green energy transition \u2026 is growing the demand for copper,\u201d Petsel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith any economic development project, there\u2019s always a risk,\u201d said Powell. \u201cBut somebody has to be able to do this right. If it\u2019s not grown, it\u2019s mined.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

exploration company found over a billion pounds of copper in La Plata Canyon, but it\u2019s not guaranteed it will be mined<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,475,83,239,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-mancos","tag-mining","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78685,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24811\/revisions\/78685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24811"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}