Algernon D'Ammassa

There is much excitement both positive and negative about a proposed magnesium complex in Luna County, a project which its investors hope will transform the city of Deming into the capital of domestic magnesium production.

The project has a compelling salesman in American Magnesium’s spokesman and managing partner, David Tognoni, who will appear at a public Friends of Rockhound meeting next Wednesday at 10 a.m. The possibility of a large manufacturing complex coming to Deming’s Peru Mill industrial park and bringing employment to the county has aroused public interest and local investment in Tognoni’s company.

Some naysayers of the project envision this as an open pit mine or a fracking operation, but when one looks at the Plan of Operations submitted to the state Mineral and Mining Division and the Bureau of Land Management, what is proposed is a smaller quarry operation. There are, nonetheless, concerns that increase the likelihood that an Environmental Impact Statement will be required and other factors that may delay the project for years, or kill it outright.

Neither the company’s mining permit application nor its BLM submission include any discussion of the proposed Peru Mill refinery or the famous 15-mile conveyor belt. BLM confirmed to me that under federal regulations, those need to be included for its assessment even if the related activities are off federal land.

Another concern for the project is BLM’s Uncommon Variety test. Currently, American Magnesium holds a claim based on the General Mining Act of 1872, a post-Gold Rush law allowing prospectors to “locate” minerals on public land and stake a claim. Under the 1955 Multiple Surface Use Act, however, “common varieties of sand, stone, gravel, pumice, pumicite, or cinders” cannot be claimed under the 1872 law. Based on previous cases, the dolomite in the Floridas may not be “locatable” but instead subject to a contract with the government. BLM could consider truck traffic, the Peru Mill site, the impact on nearby residents and the Wilderness Study Area; and its options include simply saying no to the whole operation.

The “common varieties” problem has bitten Tognoni before. In 1997, he lost an Interior Board of Land Appeals case in which he had “located” gravel, sold it to the Wyoming Department of Transportation, and defended his claim based on the argument that the gravel had a distinct shape and size that made it uncommon. Nice try, said the Interior Department, which ruled he had trespassed and ordered him to pay damages.

Based on precedent, it seems hard to imagine that BLM will consider the dolomite in the Floridas to be uncommon. The very document that attracted Tognoni to the Floridas, a 1957 study titled “High-Purity Dolomite Deposits of South-Central New Mexico” by Frank E. Kottlowski, describes dolomite as - well, common: “Almost unlimited deposits of high-purity bedded dolomite, which could be utilized for the production of metallic magnesium and magnesium compounds, occur in south-central New Mexico, in the area from the Sacramento Mountains west to Deming, and from the northern tip of the San Andres Mountains south to Mexico.”

In previous cases, BLM has treated dolomite as a common mineral, and when it looks at the whole picture it has sometimes decided the project is not in the public interest. One such case involved a large dolomite and limestone project near Henderson, Nevada, that BLM declined in 2013.

For American Magnesium, its investors, and the project’s proponents and adversaries, a longer process buys some time – years, I suspect; and for those who want to participate in the outcome, there is a lot of work to do.

Algernon D’Ammassa is Desert Sage. Write to him at adammassa@demingheadlight.com.