A company that wants to extract gold from piles of decades-old mining waste outside Leadville no longer plans to use cyanide in its processes after hearing concerns from locals about the toxic chemical.
CJK Milling will instead use a different process to separate the gold from 1.2 million tons of tailings left over from historic mining in the area, the company announced Monday. The process, created by Extrakt Processing Solutions, is new technology that CJK Milling tested over the last year.
Nick Michael, the founder of CJK Milling, says the process is environmentally friendly and a "much, much cleaner process."
"Using cyanide was never something I wanted to do, especially in Colorado. ... But if that's all we had, that's what we were going to do," Michael said. "And of course, we got all the pushback."
CJK Milling plans to truck 1.2 million tons of mining waste piled east of Leadville to its mill on the southwestern side of town, where it will extract gold and silver from the waste. It wasn't economical to extract the precious metals from the waste when the piles were excavated decades ago from the mines surrounding the town. But scientific advancements now make extracting silver and gold financially feasible.
CJK Milling leaders hope that doing so will help return the hills outside Leadville to a more natural state.
The company originally planned to use up to 600 pounds of cyanide a day to extract the gold and silver from the waste. The plan to use the toxic chemical so close to town -- and a few hundred yards from a tributary to the Arkansas River -- prompted alarm among some in Lake County.
Cyanide is used in mining operations around the world and, while toxic in large-enough quantities, is naturally occurring. CJK Milling leaders have repeatedly said their mill is designed to keep cyanide solution from contaminating the surrounding area, even in the event of a disaster.
"It's dangerous, but there are a lot more dangerous reagents than cyanide. But cyanide is a trigger word," Michael said. "It's a poison, you can die -- I'm not belittling that."
The company recently received test results back that showed that Extrakt Processing Solutions' new technology could be used at their mill. Other companies in Colorado are also testing the technique, Michael said. The process uses ionic liquids, or salts that remain in liquid form and can dissolve metals.
"We just got the results that this works, and we're confident enough to adopt this into our process," he said.
Members of Concerned Citizens for Lake County, the group of residents that organized against CJK Milling's project, said they were pleased by the change in plans.
"We're glad they listened to our concerns about the cyanide, but we need to investigate much more thoroughly regarding this brand new process they are suggesting before we can make any further comments," group member Ruth Goltzer said.
Residents' concerns were not limited to the use of cyanide, however. Others worried about an increase in truck traffic and the long-term legacy the milling project could leave behind after operations cease.
Abandoning the plan to use cyanide means CJK Milling must rethink their processes, reconfigure parts of the facility and resubmit paperwork to state regulators for approval. If all goes well, the mill could begin operating in late 2025.
Michael hopes that the Leadville project will show that cleaning up mine waste can yield a profit and encourage others to pursue similar operations.
"I'm so happy that we're getting to the point of cleaning this stuff up," Michael said. "We're just one little group doing this. And I want to show that you can do this and make money. We're not buying yachts or anything ... but you can make a nice living doing it."