Montrose Daily Press Co

DOE gets an earful on uranium mine leasing program near Telluride, Montrose

Rare earth metals used to manufacture magnets for electric vehicles, display screens for electronics, rechargeable batteries and smart bombs are almost entirely mined in China but that could soon change. U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn are pushing hard to knock down the barriers of entry for rare earth production to return to the United States, where mines closed in the 1990s when China undercut global prices.

Depends where you were last week when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) took feedback on its uranium mine leasing program in southwest Colorado. In some places like Telluride, according to media reports, the feds met with stiff resistance. Others, like Montrose, the reaction was more mixed.

In Montrose, near where a Canadian company hopes to build the nation’s first new uranium processing mill in decades, the Montrose Daily Press reported a DOE meeting “generated impassioned responses from its defenders and detractors.”

In the nearby ski town of Telluride, according to the Telluride Daily Planet , the DOE “received a sharp mandate from Telluride residents: Any mining is too much, and its leasing program should be disbanded.”

The DOE held a series of meetings to gather public comment on an environmental impact statement it’s preparing on a 2007 decision to award or renew 31 uranium mining leases on a 42-square-mile tract of federal land in the Uravan Mineral Belt. The government agreed to a more in-depth analysis after conservation groups filed suit alleging the feds ignored their own National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act in approving the leases.

Some residents of remote western Montrose County welcome a revival of the uranium mining industry that provided jobs in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Critics, many from the nearby resort town of Telluride and surrounding San Miguel County, fear a return to the industrial mining days that left a toxic legacy in the region.

Opponents not only want the DOE to reject new uranium mining in the area, they also want past contamination cleaned up.

Montrose murder suspects nabbed in Mexico

They are suspects in the shooting death of Marco Vargas-Salvador, who was killed in Montrose. Our partners at the Montrose Daily Press reported months after the shooting that the trio was wanted on suspicion of first-degree murder.

The men arrested are Miguel Godinez Marquez, Gilberto Godinez Marquez, and Luis Antonion Partida Godinez. They are being held in the Mexican State of Nayarit.

Suthers' spokesman Mike Saccone says they face prosecution under Article 4 of Mexico's penal code, which allows prosecution of Mexican citizens for crimes committed in other countries.

(Copyright 2011 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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