While the quarry has been idle since December 2024, has numerous unresolved compliance violations, and RMI has not applied for a federal mineral sales contract, RMI letters imply that the company still expects to win state and federal approvals to mine out the cliff and continue working upslope from the existing quarry.
No such approvals have been granted, nor has RMI successfully applied for permits to expand the quarry.
Nevertheless, in an April 10 letter to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS), RMI Vice President Robert Wagner wrote that the company’s “previous reclamation plan did not include any specific measures for in-place highwall stabilization (rock bolting) as a part of reclamation, due to the intent to mine the potential fall material and remove it from the site.”
In an Oct. 3 letter to DRMS, Wagner pressed the case further, noting that highwall rock bolting “serves as an interim addition to the reclamation plan prior to a future amendment of the broader mining permit.”
RMI attempts to dodge rock bolting requirement
The overhanging cliff (at right) remained above the quarry’s west highwall after a large rockfall occurred in January 2023. The slope collapse brought down tons of loose limestone boulders into the quarry area. No one was injured, but the rockfall engulfed some unoccupied heavy equipment.
RMI continued to operate in a safe zone outside of the rockfall area with no further rock blasting, scouring the remainder of the quarry for loose material until ceasing operations in December 2024. In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Interior issued a decision barring the company from continuing to mine common variety limestone unless it obtained a federal mineral sales contract, which has yet to occur.
Meanwhile, the Colorado DRMS told RMI in late 2024 that it must revise its state reclamation plan and increase its reclamation bond to account for rock bolting the cliff. Rock bolting is the only means of securing the slope within RMI’s current quarry boundary of 38 acres. At the time, DRMS estimated a reclamation bond to cover that work could amount to $3.2 million.
On Jan. 29, 2025, RMI filed a reclamation plan that called for an 18-acre upslope expansion of the quarry boundary. That would have allowed the company to blast apart and mine out the overhanging cliff, rather than rock bolting it in place. The Citizens’ Alliance and others objected, and Colorado DRMS swiftly shut down the proposal with an emphatic denial.
Forced to address the state’s demand for a rock bolting solution, RMI spent another 10 months this year attempting to submit an acceptable plan. Its third attempt, submitted Oct. 3, was approved by DRMS on Nov. 5. A redacted version of the plan is available on a DRMS archives website, and available here.
Surety increase process to address bond amount
Finalizing the dollar amount for the new reclamation bond has been put off for a separate DRMS process called a Surety Increase. The state agency draws on these reclamation bonds to cover costs in case a mine operator abandons the property without completing the required reclamation work.
In 2024, DRMS increased RMI’s state reclamation bond, which covered standard quarry reclamation work, to account for inflation. It was raised from $366,179 to a new bond of $489,758. RMI posted a bond for that increase in January 2025.
While DRMS estimated the new bond to cover rock bolting could rise to as much as $3.2 million, the agency gave RMI an opportunity to obtain price quotes from contractors. After getting several extensions to obtain those quotes, RMI’s Oct. 3 reclamation plan contained two quotes from Golden Geotechnics Inc. of Golden, Colo. The two quotes averaged out to $550,125.
Combined with the existing bond amount and other costs associated with rock bolting, DRMS has now estimated the new reclamation bond at $1.3 million. The agency is also consulting with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over the bond increase, since about $62,000 of the bond will cover the federal agency’s costs for engineering and reclamation management.
Once DRMS formally issues a Notice of Surety Increase with a finalized bond amount, which is expected to occur by early December, RMI will have 60 days to post the higher bond.