Domestic mining linked to renewables

OURAY – Do you support renewable energy? Energy independence? If so, then you’d better support domestic miners, says Jim Burnell, of the Colorado Geological Survey.

Burnell recently spoke in Ouray, the one-time mining town on the edge of the rich mining districts of the San Juans. His speech was reported by theOuray Watch.

Solar panels, batteries and hybrid cars all contain the kinds of minerals that were historically mined in Colorado.

“Cadmium-tellurium photovoltaics – these would take over the world if one of these minerals weren’t so rare,” he said. The most important element, tellurium, is the namesake for Telluride.

Concentrated solar power, which many energy experts say is the most crucial technology necessary to reduce greenhouse gases, uses aluminum or silver. And the tubes used to transport the energy contain molybdenum, said Burnell. Colorado has one active molybdenum mine, located just north of the Eisenhower Tunnel, with another mine scheduled to reopen soon between Copper Mountain and Leadville. A third is proposed in Crested Butte.

Colorado also has an abundance of zinc, which is necessary for certain types of fuel cells.

Of the minerals and metals needed for production of alternative energy, only a few – selenium, vanadium, bromine and copper – come primarily from domestic U.S. sources. Most of the rest are imported, particularly from China. Perhaps not coincidentally, nearly all batteries and photovoltaic panels are also imported.

That means renewable energy may be possible, but given current policies, not energy independence.

“Achieving energy independence by means of alternative energy technology can’t be done without domestic mining,” Burnell said. “Moving to renewable energy technologies is inconsistent with anti-mining advocacy.”

While there is no such thing as no-impact mining, the impacts to environmental and human health are much more minimal than in the past, he said.

Mountain towns feel financial pinch

SNOWMASS VILLAGE – Stalled development projects, lagging real estate sales, and brows furrowed over the coming ski season continue to dominate the news in ski towns.

Double-digit gains in real estate have been replaced by declines that are just as unrelentingly in double digits. A new Land Title Guarantee Co. report says sales volume was down 36 percent for the year through September in Aspen and surrounding Pitkin County, while dollar volume plunged 46 percent.

Construction activity is also being affected by the credit constriction. In Snowmass Village, real estate developer WestPac has announced that shaky credit has delayed three buildings scheduled for construction this fall at the $1 billion Base Village project. However, work will continue on two buildings now under construction.

Financing WestPac’s projects are Hypo Real Estate Holding, which recently received a $69 billion bailout from the German government, and Lehman Bros., the U.S. firm that filed for bankruptcy in September.

Lehman Bros., the nation’s fourth-largest investment bank, was also in the news in Telluride, where it was the financier of the swank Capella Telluride Hotel. The division of Lehman responsible for the financing was acquired in September by Barclays, the London-based global financial services company.

However, moving into October, Barclays had not confirmed that it would extend financing for the hotel. As the general contractor jockeyed to ensure payments, subcontractors began pulling out. The result, reports theTelluride Watch, was silence at a work site that before had been a cacophony of construction.

The construction trades returned to the project after about a week, when the financing extension was confirmed. The hotel, the first North American operation by Horst Schulze, who previously founded the Ritz-Carlton chain, is scheduled to open in February.

Lehman Bros. was also involved in financing the Fortress Investment Group acquisition of Intrawest, the operator of three major resorts in Colorado plus Whistler and Blackcomb. A $1.7 billion loan due Oct. 23 was causing apprehension, but the refinancing was accomplished.

Looking out to the ski season, however, the only thing clear is that the times have changed. “There will be a new normal,” said Ralf Garrison, of the Mountain Travel Research Program.

Garrison said the pace of reservations in September for future months was down 19.6 across the ski sector. Vail, he said, is down 19.5 percent.

Aspen seems no different. “Booking numbers are definitely down,” said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass, a central reservations agency. Tim Clark, president of the Aspen Lodging Association, said the economy is causing people to book closer to time of arrival. As such, it’s possible that positive economic news may turn around reservations numbers yet this winter, he said.

First Dude stops off at the Eagle Diner

EAGLE – Todd Palin stopped by the Eagle Diner last week for a grip, grin and gripe with the locals. He’s the husband of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and although he often has been appearing with his spouse, last week he was running solo.

He was wearing blue jeans and a black jacket, with an emblem from the Iron Dog snowmobile race pinned to it. Personable and friendly, he went from booth to booth in the small diner, which can hold no more than a few dozen people.

The community of 7,000, located a half-hour down-valley from Vail, is contested turf, as is all of Colorado – at least in theory. There are official headquarters in Eagle for both Barack Obama and John McCain. For decades, Eagle County was reliably Republican but beginning in 1992 began drifting blue.

But for many of the local electricians, fishing guides and builders, Obama is an abstraction – and a feared one. Although none appeared to be the sorts who make more than $250,000, the income bracket targeted by Obama’s tax plan, they told Palin of fears that Obama will divert their income to less-deserving people.

They also talked to him about hunting and wanted to know about his snowmobile racing.

Three ski areas testing snow blanket

SNOWMASS – The snowpack never completely melted this summer at the Snowmass ski area, where a mound of snow 20 feet high survived even the 80-plus days of summer. The mound is the remnant of a massive jump that was part of a snowboard terrain park built last winter.

Until early October, the snow was covered by a blanket produced by a Swiss company called Landolt. The product is called Ice Protector Optiforce, and it’s being used in European ski resorts, which tend to be lower and more vulnerable to the warming climate.

Rich Burkley, general manager of mountain operations for the Aspen Skiing Company, said the snow blanket is expected to be most useful in protecting snow or ice at critical connections or access areas, such as at ramps below chairlifts that get skiers to trails. One goal, he toldThe Aspen Times, is to reduce the energy consumption needed to make snow.

However, whether the blanket is cost effective is still being evaluated, he said. Also testing the blanket for effectiveness are the Vail and Telluride ski areas.

Couple tries to ski the entire nation

KETCHUM, Idaho – John and Jewel Andrew, who are well into their retirement, stopped by Sun Valley recently. Twelve years ago they decided to ski all the alpine resorts in North America, and so far they’ve accomplished that at 505 ski hills from Alaska to Georgia.

“Hill” might seem like an exaggeration for some of these ski areas, observes theIdaho Mountain Express. For example, New York’s Sawkill Family Ski Center has only 70 vertical feet. The average in North American is 948 feet.

Many of the ski hills are operating on a shoestring. John, who is 77, says he insists on paying, even though most ski areas want to give him a free lift ticket when they discover his age.

Another 200 or so ski areas remain on the couple’s list, with 40 to 60 each in Ontario, Quebec, New York and Michigan. “Our goal of skiing all of North America may be forever elusive,” John Andrew told the newspaper. Still, he didn’t sound the least bit rueful about the quest. Sensible retired people, he added, go on ocean cruises.

– Allen Best