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<br />L <8>and<!B> <8>mine</8> <br /> <br />Page b or .W <br /> <br />The warning that acid would increase as a result of the prOject "is <br />completely contrary to . my perception of what we were doing," he said. <br /> <br />Roper said he believed the acid would decrease, as he told the state mine <br />board. <br /> <br />"1 firmly - I always - believed that," he said. <br /> <br />State officials, in any event. didn't question the claim. <br /> <br />They were busy listening to elected officials in the San Luis Valley who <br />wanted the 100 jobs Roper was promising. The jobs would pump money <br />into the economy, Roper predicted in meetings with local officials and <br />mining regulators. <br /> <br />Dave Shelton, who headed the Mined Land Reclamation Division, said he <br />doesn't recall meeting with Roper, but he recalls a barrage of support for the <br />project from San Luis Valley leaders. <br /> <br />http://www.denver-rmn.comlnews/0507 smmt l.shtml <br /> <br />5/7/00 <br /> <br /> <br />He heard no voices in opposition. <br /> <br />Still, said Shelton, who is now second-in-command of the company that is <br />cleaning up Rocky Flats, "I think there was a decent review (of the project)." <br /> <br />But regulators had to rely on Galactic's word because nothing was built yet, <br />Shelton said. <br /> <br />Besides, said Barry, who was Shelton's supervisor, Colorado mining laws, <br />drafted by a pro-business legislature, weren't meant to stop mining. They <br />were intended to encourage it. <br /> <br />"It was clear... that the job of the Mined Land Board was not to deny <br />permits, but to allow mining with proper control and with proper <br />reclamation," Barry said. "Hardly ever in my experience there did we deny a <br />permit. We sent people back to the drawing boards a lot, but the number of <br />outright denials was very limited." <br /> <br />With little opposition, the project was approved in October 1 984, two months <br />after Galactic submitted the application. <br /> <br />Now the only thing Galactic needed to open the mine was money - lots of <br />money. They got it. But it wasn't nearly enough. <br /> <br />An unlikely investor steps in <br /> <br />Pulling the face off a mountain isn't cheap. Opening the Summitville mine <br />eventually cost $47 million - $14 million more than the company expected. <br /> <br />Even as the state was approving the permit in October 1984, mine manager <br />Roger Leonard wasn't sure he could meet the payroll for the next month, <br />company documents show. <br /> <br />Friedland and financial officers shopped the Summitville project to several <br />banks and sought joint ventures with other mining companies. But by early <br />1985 he hadn't gotten a nibble, possibly because it was known in the mining <br />community that mining giant Anaconda had rejected the same site <br />