SUMMIT COUNTY — The purchase of a 129-acre mining parcel in Mayflower Gulch, between Copper Mountain and Fremont Pass, east of Colorado 91, is aimed at protecting the area from future mining and development.
County open-space officials sealed the deal Tuesday for $900,000 after years of negotiations with the owner, who is in Florida.
“It’s been a priority for us. We started working on this in 2002,” said Brian Lorch, director of the open-space program.
Most of the land in the high alpine basin is owned by the county or is part of the national forest. Some adjacent land is owned by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., owners of the nearby Climax molybdenum mine.
“We’ve talked to Climax, but they’ve made it clear they’re not in the land disposition (selling) mode,” Lorch said.
The company may use its Mayflower Gulch holdings as part of a future big-picture land swap involving parcels in other states, Lorch said.
The previous owner of the Mayflower property, Florentine Vantine of Florida, initially wanted $4 million for the property.
That may sound like a terrifically high price, but gold reserves on the parcel are valued at $15 million to $50 million, according to Dan Hinds, an environmental expert who worked with Vantine during the past 10 years to meet state mining and reclamation regulations.
It would have cost about $5 million to $10 million to bring the mining operation back up to speed, and the cost of protecting natural resources in the area and of working at that elevation would also be high, he said.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property. I’m taking a loss of about $5 million, but I really wanted to do something for the community,” Vantine said.
Gold is selling for more than $1,100 per ounce, its highest ever, but as of Nov. 18, the state mining permit has been retired, as a condition of the sale.
