Prices of Mine land - Democratic Underground

PragMantisT

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Tue May-11-04 06:54 PM
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Prices of Mine land

NBC evening news did a segment on the sale of land in Crested Butte, Colorado to a large mining company for mining Molybdenum. They quoted a price of $5 an acre. That seems like a steal. It was based on an 1870's law.

My question is: could I buy land in Crested Butte for $5 an acre? If not, why not?

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zbdent

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Tue May-11-04 07:04 PM
Response to Original message

1. Did you donate a ton of money to Bush?

If not, then it was thousands of dollars per tenth of an acre.

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phantom power

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Tue May-11-04 07:07 PM
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2. might be an interesting strategy:

Incorporate as a "mining" company, with a title like "PragMantis Mining, LLC". Then apply to buy up land at $5/acre. If you get approved, then heck, buy it up and donate it to the Nature Conservancy, or something. If you don't get approved, maybe it can be leveraged for publicity somehow.

People have been trying to get this 1876 mining law taken off the books for years. I'm sure the mining companies have fought hard to prevent that, but if enough people realized how badly they are being screwed in the name of private interests, it might help.

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amazona

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Tue May-11-04 07:14 PM
Response to Reply #2

4. sad reason why this doesn't work

If you don't develop the mineral resource, you lose the property. At least that's how it worked in the oil industry, I doubt molybdenum is any different in that regard. The whole reason for the original law was to encourage development. The 1800s did not foresee a world where we needed to discourage development.

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PragMantisT

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Tue May-11-04 07:28 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. One of the things also mentioned

is that the mining company owns 2 other molybdenum mines in Colorado. Only one is in operation. They claim to not foresee mining the Crested Butte property. Could the property revert to the gov? Not a bad $5 gamble ($875 total bill).

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amazona

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Tue May-11-04 07:11 PM
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3. try $1 million per acre!

Locals are also upset that the mining company purchased the prime real estate for only $5 per acre in a town where one tenth of an acre can sell for over $100,000.

Here's a story about it:

http://outside.away.com/outside/news/20040413_1.html

Bill Clinton tried to put a moratorium on companies being able to basically steal public lands for a token fee if they promised to develop the minerals resources, but alas this company was apparently grandfathered in and has persisted in trying to acquire the mineral rights (and of course the land with it, as mining would ruin the land) for a token fee. It will all play out in court, I assume.

The people of the town do not want this site developed and that should be an end of it, but sadly democracy is having a struggle of it in this case.

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