Concurrent Reclamation—Works Just Like a Zipper

As we noted in an earlier post, we will be excavating minerals and reclaiming our site simultaneously. We call it concurrent reclamation. It makes sense from an operational standpoint, and helps us minimize any disruptions to the land.

The first step in our process is the clearing of a portion of our leased land—about 2-3 acres starting in the south Seven Devils deposit area. During the course of the first year we will be disturbing only about 12-15 acres total. We do our best to limit the opened area.

We have already constructed roads to reach the excavation area and started the clearing process. We are working closely with officials from Weyerhaeuser, the landowners in this area.


Access Road Construction



Land Clearing



Sand Removal

We understand and respect the importance of the forest in this area, both for the people who live here and Weyerhaeuser, a company with deep ties in the lumber business. They don’t want to be left with bare land when we leave and we will not do any permanent damage. So we have discussed our plans thoroughly with Weyerhaeuser and they are in agreement with our process. We expect to finish clearing the trees this week and the Douglas fir cleared from the site will go to Weyerhaeuser.

We compare our concurrent reclamation process to a zipper. We unzip the earth; move the topsoil to the edge of the site and save it for later. Then we separate our minerals; the sand that’s leftover will be put back into the site. Before we’re finished we also contour the area to its original topography. Any drainage features or water conveyances that existed before we opened the site will be restored to the best of our ability. Then we put the topsoil back on the opened site. It’s like we zip it right back up before we replant the trees.

In the next few days we’ll start removing sand—probably about 6,000 tons of surface sand during the first week. We’ll move that to the cleaning and sorting plant at Bunker Hill where we’ll be separating the chromite, zircon and garnet.