Climax mine

The prospector Charles Senter discovered and claimed the outcropping of molybdenite (molybdenum sulfide) veins in 1879, during the Leadville, Colorado Silver Boom, but had no idea what the mineral there was.

The following year he settled with his Ute wife a few miles north, and made a living working a nearby gold placer.

Each year he performed the assessment work required to maintain his lode claims, convinced that his mystery mineral must be of value.

"[1] Although Senter finally found a chemist who identified the gray mineral as containing molybdenum in 1895, at the time there was virtually no market for the metal.

Molybdenum is an important metal used in industrial work to increase the resistance of steel because of its much higher melting point compared to that of iron.

[4] The extraction of molybdenite hit its highest during World War I, when the army realized that the Germans were using molybdenum as an alloy to strengthen and increase the durability of their tanks and other weapons.

[6] The company stated that the Climax mine had "... the largest, highest-grade and lowest-cost molybdenum ore body in the world.".

[8] Due to lower molybdenum prices, Freeport-McMoRan announced in November 2008 that it was deferring the plan to reopen the Climax mine.

About 20 different federal or state agencies affected Climax operations, including the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.

Climax also started the reclamation of a particular highly acidic tailing pond at the head of the Eagle River drainage.

It sold the water rights to a company from Vail and started the process of removing and neutralizing the acid tailings to convert the pond to a freshwater reservoir.

Around the open-pit, caved ground combined with winter avalanches and high vertical pit walls make the West side of the mountain even more susceptible to collapse.