Pikeview Quarry, mining and "the scar"

QUESTION: When does the mining permit run out for the gravel operations (“the scar”) on our beautiful mountains?
- Ardith

ANSWER: When a company applies for a special-use permit for mining it can be for a specified time or for the life of the mine, according to Castle Concrete vice president Jerry Hermans. The permit for Pikeview is for the life of the mine and has been in place for almost 100 years.

Hermans estimates there are three to five years left to “mine out” that quarry. He couldn’t be more specific because of variables such as the quality of the limestone remaining and market demand.

Reclamation has been ongoing for years. For the time being, it’s stopped in the area being mined because “you can’t work on reclamation above while you’re mining down below,” Hermans says. Wanda L. Reaves of the Colorado Mountain Reclamation Foundation says that during the spring planting seasons CMRF plants trees and shrubs on Pikeview quarry and already more than 3,000 trees and shrubs are thriving there.

Hermans points out that Pikeview reclamation work is far ahead of the nearby Queens Canyon quarry, which wasn’t reclaimed until mining stopped. “It’s much easier to do it the way we are now, getting a start on reclamation, rather than waiting,” says Hermans. After years of hard work by the foundation, volunteers and Castle Concrete, Queens Canyon is a greened-up bighorn sheep habitat.