Protect
Bill Williams Mountain,
Protect
Your Watershed,
Say No
to Drake Cement Open Pit Mine

DATE: Feb 2, 2024
TO: Bill Williams Mtn. area residents
FR: Protect Bill Williams Mtn. Committee
RE: Follow Up on Drake Planned Mining Operations on the east slope of Bill Williams Mountain

As promised, we continue to monitor developments and non-developments pertaining to the Drake Cement  Company proposed mining operations that encompasses and impacts critical watersheds on the east slope of Bill Williams Mountain.

We are pleased to inform you that we were the recipients of an unsolicited invitation to join Nicole Branton, Forest Supervisor of the Kaibab National Forest earlier this week for a meeting that included many Forest Service
managers and representatives of the Save Parks opposition to pozzolan mining plans there. The purpose of the meeting was to keep our community informed of the actions that are now being seriously considered by the U.S.
Forest Service. No new decisions regarding the Bill Williams Mountain Exploratory Plan by Drake are currently being considered nor evaluated.

To clarify, Drake's Bill Williams Mountain claim has, indeed, resulted in a proposal for exploration being submitted to the U.S. Forest Service. But given the new development of which we are about to explain to you, the Bill Williams Mountain analysis of Drakes proposal for exploration has been temporarily suspended.

Nicole Branton explained to us that the Kaibab National Forest under her direction has decided to launch a Mineral Classification Process to determine the quality, rarity or non-rarity of pozzolan so as to gain a better perspective
on their ability to approve or deny current or future mining applications. This is a bit elusive given the odd descriptive words used to describe a mineral's rarity or commonality, so please learn these words and their meanings as we
move forward in opposition to any further development of mining interests on Bill Williams Mountain. These ARE NOT dictionary definitions. These are "common man" or "layman's" definitions according to our understanding:

Locatable Material: Rare materials like Uranium, Gold, Silver, but not necessarily limited to these including most metallic mineral deposits and certain nonmetallic and industrial minerals.

Saleable Material: Not rare at all like sandstone, gravel, stone, clay, and other similar materials. Such mineral materials include deposits which, although they have economic value, are used for agriculture, building, abrasion, landscaping, and similar uses.

Why is this important to us?

1. The General Mining Law of 1872 is the major Federal law governing locatable minerals. The Forest Service may not prohibit locatable mineral operations that otherwise comply with applicable law, nor regulate those operations in a way that amounts to a prohibition. This actually answers a question: "Why can't you just deny them access on Forest Roads?"; Such an interpretation would most likely constitute an unreasonable prohibition.

2. Under the U.S. Forest Service’s mineral regulations, the Forest Service has more discretion in managing saleable, also called common variety, minerals. The Forest Service has the authority to deny a proposal to mine saleable minerals. So, in our evaluation of the statements at this meeting, this mineral classification analysis could lead us to a place where our further advocacy against the mining operation may have more weight.

Drake Cement Company, LLC has already been made aware that the mineral classification analysis is going to be conducted by a U.S. Forest Service Certified Mineral Examiner, who will analyze samples and prepare a Mineral Classification Report. The U.S. Forest Service has yet to assign this mineral examiner to the Kaibab National Forest. Therefore, no dates have been set or estimated for initiation or completion of this analysis. That said, Nicole Branton offered to tell us that she expected this process (that has not begun) will take about a year to complete. The reason it will take so long is that the U.S Forest Service will be evaluating many other sites that contain pozzolan to carefully and thoroughly offer a comprehensive analysis as to pozzolan quality and whether it can be considered rare or not-so-rare in our greater area/region.

Adding to the time needed for the Mineral Classification Process, the U.S. Forest Service is REQUIRED to conduct an environmental review (aka NEPA) on their own sampling activities that will occur during the Mineral Classification Process to identify potential effects to forest resources and identify mitigations. Whenever anyone is disturbing, disrupting or breaking ground on a national forest including the Forest Service itself acquiring mineral samples as is the case here, the NEPA process must be completed including input and comment from the public. As part of this required NEPA process, the forest service will be asking the public to weigh-in on their plans and help them refine them. So, in specific regard to this Mineral Classification Process, you’re likely to receive Forest Service notices like,
“we’re soliciting input on a proposal,” “public scoping period,” and “public comment period.”

We have evaluated the Mineral Classification Process proposal and believe that you should support this much needed analysis. We feel that it is important for you to know that Nicole and her staff did not need our input or approval for this action. She and her staff discussed what needs they had at the Forest Service level to help them make the most informed decisions and actions regarding any and all proposed mining of pozzolan on the Kaibab National Forest.

To be clear, the definition/classification of the pozzolan materials is not a guarantee that any future mining application will be approved or denied. This, however, is a step in the process that Nicole Branton and her staff have initiated in order for them to gain much needed clarity on the role they will be able to play in future mining application approvals or denials.

We believe that the Kaibab is being led by folks who see themselves as protectors/stewards of their and our forests. We see them proactively and comprehensively restoring the Aspen groves and protecting/repairing them constantly to mitigate damage to their regrowth by elk and deer. We see them proactively and comprehensively executing critical, prescribed burns to clear our forest floor(s) of dead/downed wood and other forest floor debris like pine needles to try and prevent wildfires/conflagrations. We see their effective and hard fought battles against forest fires in our area and their management of lightning strike fires to affect future fire mitigation. We see their tedious management of forest thinning operations to restore forest health and the forest floor with its natural fauna and, again, to mitigate or prevent wildfires/conflagrations. So, it is not an absent observation of their behavior that brings us to this conclusion: Nicole and her team are strong advocates for protection of our forests and wildlands.

With that in mind, it is important to note that their stewardship is complicated by mining laws that can, at times, make it so that mining application decisions are out of their control. Mining laws are under the purview and complete control of Congress, not the U.S. Forest Service. To make matters more complex, codified law as in the 1872 General Mining law has had many challenges that have been ruled upon in the judicial process, setting "precedents" that have become virtual addenda to the original codified law. However, it is our opinion that the Mineral Classification Process is one that is to be welcomed by all of us here in the Williams Community as its determinations may provide more opportunity for our opposition to a future mining application.

If at some point in the not too distant future, sometime after the Mineral Classification Process clears its NEPA review, and as you are perusing the foothills of Bill Williams Mountain in or around the survey-staked area of Drake's Cement claim, you may see Forest Service folks along with the Certified Mineral Specialist/Examiner doing in-ground examinations of the pozzolan deposits in the affected area. This is not a sign that commercial excavation has begun. This is not a sign that a mining application has been approved. This is not a sign that Drake has started destroying our mountain. The U.S. Forest Service's Certified Mineral Examiner will need to dig a bit, may need to take core samples, etc. That's all that's happening.

We will keep you advised as this proposal/process develops and evolves. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Steve Dudley
Mike Benham
for Protect Bill Williams Mountain
https://protectourmountain.wixsite.com/protect-bill-william

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