MISSION STATEMENT:
The Alliance for Responsible Mining is a grassroots coalition of individuals and organizations who insist on responsible mining laws and practices to protect the health and well being of our citizens and preserve the natural resources of Colorado.
GOALS:
We serve as a watchdog organization that monitors mining in Colorado to help insure responsible mining practices. For too many years, citizens of Colorado have fought to defend their communities in isolated battles against outdated mining laws and ineffective regulatory agencies, with little chance for public input into the extraction of mineral resources.
We are spearheading the effort to introduce legislation into the Colorado State House and Senate to stop new open-pit cyanide gold mines in Colorado. Existing mines could continue to operate and expand under their current permits. The proposed law has been introduced by Senator Rob Hernandez. We believe open-pit cyanide heap and vat leach mining is a failed technology, leaving Colorado and much of the American West with a legacy of fish kills, polluted rivers and aquifers, diseased wildlife, mountains of toxic waste covering thousands of acres, Superfund sites, boom-bust economies and outrageous taxpayer funded cleanups of polluted surface and ground water. We believe clean water is more precious than gold. This single law can prevent decades of perpetual water treatment and the ineffective reclamation.
At the same time, grassroots efforts in individual counties are under way to pass country land-use moratoriums prohibiting open-pit cyanide heap and vat leaching operations in their own counties. Gunnison County has already passed such a ban.
The most common response from voters hearing that we are trying to stop further open-pit cyanide gold mining in Colorado is They can`t still mine with cyanide