Daily Press Writer
MONTROSE — A proposal that calls for a gold mine in the Uncompahgre Wilderness has been opened to public comment by the U.S. Forest Service.
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That plan — decades in the making — could utilize mule trains and helicopters to bring the ore down from the claim, which is held by Robert and Marjorie Miller of Montrose.
“We’re pleased to have reached this point in the evaluation and analysis of this complex mining claim,” said GMUG Forest Supervisor Charlie Richmond in a news release. “I hope that those folks who are interested in this activity will take their time to review and provide specific comment on the analysis in the Draft EIS and the proposed activities on the claim.”
The mining proposal calls for two adits, or mine tunnels, along with associated storage buildings, compressors and mining equipment at the site, which sits just below tree line at roughly 11,500 feet.
Some waste rock and ore will be transported out of the wilderness to be processed elsewhere. The proposal calls for pack animals to be the primary form of transportation from the site, but some of the hauling of large equipment and occasional loads from the mine could be done by helicopter.
The Forest Service’s analysis will determine the mitigation measures that go into the plan of operations, but won’t contest the Millers’ right to develop the claim, which they hold under the General Mining Law of 1872.
The 20-acre claim was first located in 1890 and worked by different parties until 1903, according to court documents.
Marjorie Miller was deeded a share of the claim in 1953 by her father Elmer Eipper, who located it 15 years earlier and also ran the family’s fruit farm in Montrose.
When the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1980 established the Big Blue Wilderness, which is now the Uncompaghre, it allowed the designated lands to be managed as wilderness subject to valid existing rights.
The Millers then spent nearly two decades battling the federal government over the validity of their claim until an administrative law judge from the Department of the Interior ruled in their favor in 2003.
The comment period won’t have a closing date until notice of the draft appears in the Federal Register.
Print copies of draft EIS can be purchased at the Columbine Copy Center or viewed at the Montrose Regional Library. The document can also be found at the GMUG’s Web site at http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/gmug/policy/.
Contact Matt Hildner via e-mail at matth@montrosepress.com
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