Proposed Rico mining project heads to county commissioners for review

The proposed mining project in Rico is now before the Dolores County Board of County Commissioners, putting the county’s elected land-use decision-makers at the center of a question that could shape access, traffic, water use and the town’s future tax base. The board can approve the proposal, delay it for more information, or attach conditions if it decides the project fits county rules.

That matters in Rico, a historic mining town in western Dolores County that the Colorado Encyclopedia says was settled in 1879 as a silver mining center in the Pioneer Mining District and now has a population of 265. Western Mining History lists the town at 8,825 feet, or 2,690 meters, and describes it as an active town, a reminder that any new industrial proposal would sit inside a small mountain community rather than on an isolated stretch of open land.

The local stakes run beyond the mine itself. A proposal in Rico can affect truck traffic on county roads, wear on infrastructure, noise and dust near homes, and how material would move through town and out into the surrounding backcountry. Commissioners are also the local officials who decide how a project fits county land-use rules and whether special approvals or conditions are needed before it moves ahead.

Rico’s mining history makes the review especially loaded. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced a landmark agreement with the Town of Rico on Oct. 30, 2024, under the state’s Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Program to address lead contamination in the community. The Environmental Protection Agency also maintains a site profile for the Rico Argentine Mine, and the town’s mineral past has been studied for decades, including Charles M. Engel’s 1968 guidebook essay, Rico, Colorado: A century of historic adventures in mining, and a U.S. Geological Survey publication on the geology and ore deposits of the Rico District.

Dolores County has turned down mining proposals before. On July 1, 2009, local reporting said commissioners nixed a molybdenum mine, citing a lack of detail in Outlook Resources’ plan, and another item on the denial of a molybdenum mining application points to the same history of scrutiny. The county’s recent handling of other Rico matters, including a bridge project noted in Aug. 5, 2024, commissioners minutes and County Road N questions, shows how land use, access and development issues often converge in the same stretch of western Dolores County.

For Rico residents, county landowners and others following development in the area, the next step is the commissioners’ public review, where the proposal can be examined against the town’s mining legacy, its current environmental burdens and the practical limits of a small county road system.