BLM Launches Interactive Website About Minerals
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CAÑON CITY, Colo. – Do you know that a light bulb contains silica, soda ash, lime, coal, salt, tungsten, copper, nickel, molybdenum, iron, manganese, aluminum and zinc – all minerals found on public lands in Colorado? If you visit the Bureau of Land Management’s new minerals website you would know that and much more.
Today the BLM’s Royal Gorge Field Office launched an interactive website that allows visitors to learn where minerals are found along Colorado’s Front Range and the role minerals play in our daily lives.
“Minerals are vital to everyone– regardless of if you live in a rural or urban setting,” said Stephanie Carter, BLM Royal Gorge Field Office geologist. “Even if you never step foot on public lands, you still use minerals found there, from the fluoride in your toothpaste to the gypsum in your drywall. Not everyone realizes this, so we created a website for the public to learn the importance of mineral resources.”
The RGFO’s new website: http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo/minerals.html provides users with an interactive map of Colorado’s Front Range counties. By clicking on each county, visitors can explore which minerals are found on public lands there and how those minerals are used. The website also includes general guidance and regulations for mining minerals on BLM lands.
“Today’s global society depends on minerals for fuel uses – such as oil, gas, and coal – but our society also depends on minerals for non-fuel uses such as building roads, making solar panels and purifying water,” said Carter.
The BLM’s multiple-use mission gives land managers the responsibility to manage 41 percent of Colorado’s mineral estate.
In 2011, more than $4.9 billion was generated by mineral and energy development on public lands in Colorado. Additionally, there are indirect economic benefits to areas with mineral resources such as employee wages and revenue from city, county and state property taxes.
The RGFO manages more than 688,000 surface acres and more than 2.9 million acres of mineral estate along Colorado’s Front Range, stretching across 37 counties east of the continental divide to the Kansas border and south from Wyoming to the New Mexico and Oklahoma borders.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.