American Magnesium investors rally support Supporters for proposed mining operation in the Florida Mountains circulate a petition

Algernon D'Ammassa | Headlight Reporter

DEMING – Following a raucous public meeting hosted by the Friends of Rockhound State Park last month, local investors in the American Magnesium company are circulating a petition seeking to build community support for a proposed dolomite quarry and refinery in Luna County.

The company, headquartered in Elephant Butte, submitted a Minimal Impact Mining application to the New Mexico Mineral and Mining Division in February, proposing to quarry dolomite from foothills on federal land in the Florida Mountain range near Mahoney Park and Baldy Peak. The company has promoted a plan to truck dolomite rock from the Floridas to the Peru Mill Industrial Park north of town for production of Portland cement and magnesium metal products.

American Magnesium’s founder and spokesman, David Tognoni, first held meetings with invited audiences at Mimbres Memorial Hospital in April, and then made a presentation to the public at Rockhound State Park on May 30. The latter meeting brought skeptical questioning about the project’s viability and environmental impacts, with contentious exchanges between Tognoni and opponents of mining in the Floridas.

Carol Brewka, an investor and advocate for the project, has made the petitions available at her family business, Deming Orthodontics, located at 710 S. Gold, as a way for the public to express support for the project. The petition, available at the reception desk during regular business hours, simply states, “I am in favor of American Magnesium’s project in Luna County, NM,” and signers disclose their city and state.

On Monday, Brewka claimed to have collected 506 signatures and anticipated more to come. “We have been submitting them as we get them, to both the Bureau of Land Management and the Mineral and Mining Division,” she said. “This is the future for so many families here in Deming and Luna County…I think it’s going to bring prosperity back to southwestern New Mexico.”

The petition is accompanied by a promotional sheet which claims the facility would produce 300,000 tons of magnesium per year and employ approximately 5,000 people. The fact sheet includes a proposed conveyor belt stretching from the Florida Mountains across Deming, crossing north of Interstate 10 and railways, to the proposed facility. At the May 30 meeting, however, Tognoni conceded that the operation would rely on trucks at least during initial stages.

The sheet claims the facility would be located at the old ASARCO mill site, but in May Tognoni told the Headlight he hopes the refinery will be built on Arrowhead Drive on a lot adjacent to PNM’s Luna Energy Facility. A diagram on the sheet depicts greenhouses that would sequester carbon emissions from the site, but Tognoni has admitted such greenhouses would have to be built by other enterprises and are not part of American Magnesium’s own plan of operations.

In April, the Mineral and Mining Division declared the company’s application “administratively incomplete,” preventing further technical review of the application. The company has not yet responded with a new submission, but Tognoni told the Headlight in a written statement, “Our professionals are working on it – should be completed soon.”

These documents are posted online at http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/MMD/MARP/LU035MN.html.

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-546-2611 (ext. 2608) or adammassa@demingheadlight.com.