State sets aside proposed $3.2 million reclamation bond, for now

State to conduct separate technical review process for rock bolting portion of RMI’s reclamation bond

Immediate 33% bond increase, from $366,179 to $489,758, adjusts for inflation, excludes rock bolting

Under pressure from Rocky Mountain Industrials (RMI), the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS) has split its process for increasing the company’s reclamation bond into two parts.

In August, DRMS proposed a $3.2 million reclamation bond for RMI’s Glenwood Springs limestone quarry — a nine-fold increase over the present bond of $366,179. The proposed bond increase included standard quarry reclamation work to reshape and revegetate the mine site, and costly rock bolting work to stabilize the quarry headwall that collapsed in January 2023.

DRMS also gave RMI two months, until Oct. 25, to secure price quotes on the rock bolting work from three contractors. DRMS offered to reduce the bond amount if an average of the three private-sector bids came in lower than the cost estimate put together by DRMS staff.

On Oct. 25, RMI requested a 60-day extension for obtaining the alternate price quotes. Moreover, RMI challenged the state agency’s rationale for including rock bolting costs in the reclamation bond at all. The company contended that rock bolting has not been approved by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which owns the quarry site, nor is rock bolting included in the current reclamation plan.

DRMS included rock bolting in the proposed bond because it was the only slope stabilization option that did not extend beyond the quarry’s current approved state and federal boundaries. The other so-called stabilization plan called for mining upward on the mountain to the point where the unstable limestone layers pinch out — a plan with little difference from RMI’s massive mine expansion proposal.

DRMS granted the 60-day extension for obtaining price quotes, and said it would respond to the rock bolting challenge in a separate letter.

“Like any mining operation in Colorado, RMI has an obligation to protect the taxpayers of the state from the burden of reclaiming the mine site. A more robust reclamation bond is an urgent need,” said Jeff Peterson, president of the Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance.

Inflationary bond increase due Jan. 14; new Technical Revision to “memorialize” rock bolting requirement

On Nov. 15, Amy Yeldell, Environmental Protection Specialist with DRMS, responded to the rock bolting question, agreeing to split the reclamation bond issues in two.

On one hand, she officially notified RMI of a 33 percent boost in its reclamation bond, increasing it from the present $366,179 to a new bond of $489,758, with a due date of Jan. 14, 2025. For now, the bond will only cover standard reclamation work, such as demolishing structures, reshaping the mined benches, ripping out access roads, spreading stockpiled topsoil, and revegetating the site.

She also gave RMI until Dec. 24, 2024, to turn in its private-sector bids for rock bolting.

On the other hand, Yeldell agreed to run the rock bolting requirement for the company’s reclamation plan through the state agency’s Technical Revision process.

Rock bolting had already been included and examined in a Technical Revision completed earlier in 2024, done in response to safety concerns over the January 2023 slope collapse and hazards posed by the overhanging cliff that remained in place.

Noting “internal deliberation” at DRMS, Yeldell said the agency “agrees that the rock bolting should be specifically memorialized as part of the reclamation plan, and is more appropriately incorporated via a Technical Revision to the permit.”

She also noted that focusing on rock bolting and its costs using the Technical Revision process “helps to clarify the reclamation obligations related to safeguarding the highwall,” as well as to “propose a suitable plan to minimize future [slope] stability issues and potential off-site impacts.”

“The Citizens’ Alliance continues to support the state’s position to require rock bolting for slope stabilization. We hope to see a swift process to complete this technical revision to RMI’s state mining permit,” Peterson said.

While the timeline for this new Technical Revision process hasn’t been nailed down, Yeldell asked RMI to make its first submittal by Jan. 15, 2025.

The Technical Revision process is handled between a mine operator and DRMS staff, with no opportunities for public input and no further review by the agency’s governing board. DRMS provides transparency in the process, however, by posting mining company submittals and DRMS staff reviews to its online documents archive, typically on a next-day basis.