Fight over Red Lady, mining continues in Crested Butte

CRESTED BUTTE• In the offices of the High Country Citizens’ Alliance hangs a photo of a former Crested Butte mayor atop 12,392-foot Mount Emmons. He’s seated in a wheelchair, victoriously pumping his fist into the thin air.

The photo was taken in 1981, courtesy of a television station that flew him to the summit after AMAX Inc. abandoned its plans to build a mine there.

The celebration may have been premature.

This humped peak that dominates the city’s western skyline is at the center of the longest-running mine battle in the West. Since 1977, locals and environmentalists have been fighting plans by various companies to mine the rich deposit of molybdenum under the mountain. It’s a popular hiking and back-country skiing spot, and opponents say a mine would mar the landscape and ruin the character of this former mining town that has found prosperity in tourism.

The latest in a string of companies to express interest in mining Mount Emmons, Denver-based Thompson Creek Metals Co., bought into the venture in 2008 and is conducting what a spokesman called “pre-feasibility studies.” It may seek approval this year to begin test drilling.

Opponents are pledging to fight any mine on the mountain, nicknamed “Red Lady” for the hue it gets when the sun hits it.

“You just keep on putting up obstacles and keep saying, ‘I don’t believe this can happen here,’” said Sue Navy, 61, who moved here 40 years ago and has been part of the campaign against a mine almost as long. “It’s changed names. It’s changed designs ever so slightly, but it still hasn’t happened here.”

The Mount Emmons area was mined for coal and silver through the 1950s, operations that left a legacy of mine drainage contamination and economic stagnation when they shut down. But the molybdenum, an alloy that strengthens and prevents corrosion of steel, can be mined without these problems, said Thompson Creek spokesman Perry Anderson.

“Development of this mine will have to be done in ways that are responsible, to mitigate the impacts,” said Anderson.

It would involve “cut and fill” techniques, in which portions of the mountain are mined underground and then filled with rock material to prevent subsidence. The mine would also involve three reservoirs, two diversion points for water, a mill, paste plant and water treatment plant, and tailings storage. The company says it would employ 300 to 500 people.

The project would occur on 9,311 acres of federal land, as well as 365 acres bought for as little as $5 an acre from the U.S. Forest Service, a deal heralded as a travesty in a town where small homes sell for $1 million.

The company has been running regular ads in local newspapers and meeting with residents, part of a public-relations campaign to grow support here for the project.

“Miners blend into the community. They have families. They volunteer at schools. They run for elected office. There’s definitely going to be more business in town, more people,” said Anderson.

But Dan Morse, director of the High Country Citizens’ Alliance, a local environmental conservation and protection group that formed in 1977, said Crested Butte is no longer a mining town. To have mining noise and facilities near a bowl where people ski, tailings ponds in grassy valleys, or heavy trucks rolling down narrow streets would keep tourists away, he said.

“Those areas … are incredibly valuable resources to have and not to tamper with. To take that away from a town like this, I think people would walk the streets when they feel the threat is significant enough,” he said. Molybdenum, he said, is “readily available from the already-impacted sites that are more profitable.”

The group has pledged to fight the project on every permit, every approval.

“It’s not an either-or proposal. It doesn’t have to just be a resort town and it doesn’t have to just be a mining town,” countered Anderson. “We’re not trying to replace an economic engine. We think we can bring something in that will have sizeable benefits for the community and make it whole and maintain a middle class.”

If Thompson Creek decides to go forward — other companies, including AMAX, have abandoned the project in the past because of wild fluctuations in the molybdenum market — it won’t began mining for at least five years, Anderson said.

Meanwhile, the long fight over Mount Emmons has evolved into a local tradition. The annual Red Lady Ball is one of the biggest events on the Crested Butte calendar, where for 33 years someone has been crowned the “Red Lady,” to spend the next year representing the opposition in costume.

Longtime opponents like Sue Navy say the years have not weakened their opposition.

“It could change our entire valley, with our tourist- and lifestyle-based economy, to an industrial zone. It could change everything,” she said. “I’m hoping it won’t be another generation here still doing this.

“I’m good for another 40 years.”