Lawsuit targets Forest Service

The last mining company remaining in Pitkin County has sued the U.S. Forest Service to try to earn a court order allowing it to operate year-round. Elbram Stone LLC filed a lawsuit earlier this month in federal court in Denver contending that Forest Service officials on the local and regional levels have “unlawfully withheld approval” of Elbram's plan of operation to mine alabaster and marble from mining claims along Avalanche Creek, approximately five miles north of Redstone. The delay is a violation of the U.S. Mining Law of 1872 and other federal regulations, the lawsuit alleged. The mining company wants a judge to rule that Elbram's plan must be approved within the next 30 days. The lawsuit is the latest chapter in a 21-year fight over the mine. Mine founder Robert Congdon and his successors have battled with Pitkin County and, since 2003, the Forest Service over winter operations. “It is one of the major disagreements,” said Jeffrey McCoy, an attorney for Mountain States Legal Foundation, which is representing Elbram. While the Aspen area was built on silver mining and other deposits were mined in the area, Elbram is the last company attempting to maintain operations. Brown previously has said year-round operations are necessary from a business standpoint to make the mine profitable. The small company cannot absorb the cost of mobilizing and de-mobilizing so frequently, he said. The company also has to provide an adequate, reliable supply of rock to earn business, Brown said in the past...more