NEDERLAND - “The reality is, mining is essential, but it is how you go about doing it that makes a difference.” Tawana Bain, CEO and Chairwoman of American Clean Resources Group (ACRG), said this to the Nederland community during a Meet and Greet event at The Caribou Room on April 8, 2025.

“And we’re not going to be perfect, but we have an opportunity to do something pretty amazing, and the feedback, whether good or bad, is going to help us shape into doing that.”

The last 150 years of the Caribou and Cross Mines leads us to this moment in time, when the story of its operations becomes more complex, with new threads of complications branching out like mineral veins, becoming harder to map. 

Cease and desist

The cease and desist order levied against Grand Island Resources (GIR), the owner and operator of the mines, was a major contributing factor to the shrinking of GIR’s workforce, resulting in a loss of more than 40 employees.  

Over the course of the 2023 holiday season, not only were workers from the mines losing their jobs, they were also learning that their leases with local property owners were being abruptly terminated. 

“Permission to take from this document is given if it is printed in its entirety. Due to the reduction in our current workforce, Nederland Mining Consultants Inc. (NMC) is giving back some of our properties that were leased to provide housing for our employees and contractors over the last few years,” Richard Mittasch, Vice President of NMC, noted in this official statement to The Mountain-Ear.

“NMC is the tenant under the lease and will remain on some leases to preserve our option for the future when we resume regular operations. We are working with State regulators and, in part of our commitment to the community, we have installed a new water treatment system that has exceeded all state and federal water quality standards. We look forward to working with community businesses and residents moving forward.”

On Monday, January 9, 2024, the remaining residents at 110 North Jefferson Street, where NMC was leasing five units, had until the end of the day to completely vacate. The apartments were already being advertised on social media.

On January 17, 2025, the cease and desist order was lifted, marking the start of the 180-day period for GIR to submit their new application for Designated Mining Operation (DMO) status. 

The application was submitted on February 6, 2025.

Once the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety (DRMS) deemed the application “complete for the purposes of filing,” the 20-day period for public notice and comment began, with the official public notice first posted and published on February 20, 2025. 

The Ned response

On March 4, 2025, the BOT began discussing their own official statement to be made to the DRMS regarding the Town’s official position on the Cross Mines’ DMO application, which would make Nederland a party of interest in an as-yet unscheduled public hearing. 

“The Sustainability Advisory Board did a lot of work directly with Town staff and indirectly with the BOT,” Nederland Mayor Billy Giblin said in an interview with The Mountain-Ear.

“And we talked with Boulder County and the City of Boulder and through that process we came out with a series of questions.” 

Nederland’s official list of questions and concerns regarding operations being conducted at the mines involved environmental safety, wildlife protection, various economic factors, heavy traffic issues on Caribou Road, and noise pollution potentially affecting nearby residents, 

“Also, just clarification on the expansion from 9.9 acres to 205 acres,” Giblin added.   

GIR’s lengthy DMO application, which the DRMS had stated was complex, left Trustees with several unanswered questions pertaining to the proposed increase of Cross Mines’ permit area from 9.99 acres to 205.7 acres.

Town staff and the BOT hypothesized that the expansion plans would include the possible creation of a new processing mill. Though there are no formal plans for a new mill within the DMO application, GIR does state their intention to create a mining operation to last the next 50 years.

Nederland’s approach was not to directly oppose the DMO application, but to state concerns about the potential impact to water resources, public health, and community welfare.

“Right now we’re neutral on the reopening of the mine,” Giblin said. “We feel like good questions need to be asked for any operator going through this process.

“From an economic benefit, mining can be a viable industry for any community if done right, with good stewards at the helm and taking into consideration safety and environmental impact,” Giblin noted. 

The Hendricks petition 

During this time of public comment, the daughter of revered local miner Tom Hendricks, Maggi Mae Hendricks, launched a social media campaign and petition in opposition to GIR’s plans for the Cross Mine.

To date, this petition has gained up to 1,584 signatures.

Maggi Hendricks’ petition, through Change.org, reads: “My father ran this operation for 50 years. It was more than his livelihood, it was his passion; a labor of love through which he demonstrated his profound commitment to the environment. I intend to carry on his legacy by standing against the proposed reopening and 200-acre expansion.”

The campaign soon garnered local and statewide attention, with many in the small community stirred by Maggi’s stories about her father’s passion for his career and his respect for nature. 

The PR press

As a result of this attention, those at GIR—and at ACRG, the latest entity seeking to take control of the Caribou and Cross Mines—decided to organize the Meet and Greet public relations event at The Caribou Room to be led by ACRG’s CEO Bain.  

“We acknowledge and appreciate the foundation laid by Tom Hendricks and his years of dedication,” Bain wrote in a letter to the editor published in The Mountain-Ear on April 5, 2025.

“As we usher in this new chapter, we kindly ask for the same willingness to engage in open, respectful conversation with our team as we work to earn your trust and move forward together.”

The letter, which served as Bain’s introduction to the community and a formal invitation to the Meet and Greet, listed responses to many questions, accusations, and alleged misinformation concerning GIR’s standing as an American company, the implications of the requested expansion of their permit area, and the accusation that GIR harmed Nederland’s drinking water. 

Despite the attempts in Bain’s letter to address the lack of trust that the people of Nederland have regarding GIR, the presence of Boulder County Sheriff’s Office deputies at the Meet and Greet event only served to further separate the two entities. 

A report of threats being made against ACRG and GIR personnel almost resulted in the cancellation of the event. However, Bain and her team decided that would be poor optics, and instead chose to continue with the event as scheduled, with police presence. 

The “Meet and Greet” 

Bain began the presentation portion of the event by thanking Maggi Hendricks for inspiring her to begin ACRG and GIR’s community outreach plan a year earlier than scheduled.  

“As a woman who's broken barriers, I’m not mad at her for voicing her opinion,” Bain said. “I believe in women fighting for what they believe in and, whether or not she has all the facts, I cannot be mad at that.” 

Bain was joined on the stage by others on the Caribou and Cross Mines team, from legal experts to technical writers, including Ben Langenfeld, John Henderson, and Riley McCalister.

Other mining personnel, including Je’an-Paul Brewer, Mine Manager and Director of Operations for NMC, sat in the audience. 

While addressing how ACRG is committed to “cleaning America while rebuilding America,” those on stage also wanted to drive home the assertion that the request for expanded acreage did not mean an expansion of mining operations. 

“We’re not increasing the size or the scope of this mine,” Langenfeld assured the crowd. Langenfeld’s previous professional experience with DRMS helped to earn him a spot on GIR’s team drafting the DMO application.

“We're wrapping our arms around everything that we’re responsible for so that from here on out it’s one manageable operation for us and for the State of Colorado.”

The Q&A portion of the event truly highlighted the community’s passion, while also giving the ACRG/GIR representatives a chance to address some major issues hanging in the balance. 

Is a mill being built? How much regulation is required in order to resume operations? What actual metals are being mined?

What about the federal deregulation of major environmental agencies? Is the Mine, Safety, and Health Administration at risk of being defunded? 

One resident of the impacted area asked about the potential of increased traffic on Caribou Road, and of increased noise pollution from the supposed new on-site mill. 

“The industry has learned how to live with quiet communities,” Langenfeld answered, specifying how the mill site will be designed for sound dampening, and also how a mill will help to reduce heavy vehicle traffic on Caribou Road. 

“The more things we can do internally within our existing footprint the less things we have to send out and add impact to our roads.” 

Another resident asked about ACRG’s “buy in” for the mines, and about Bain’s personal relationship with Alfred F. Gerriets II, the current President of Pure Path Capital Group, who has been previously involved with GIR and NMC.

Bain answered that, though ACRG entered into the initial agreement phase in 2022, the purchase had yet to be finalized.

In relation to Gerriets, Bain said: “He’s my other half; he has asked to have the woman in his life be in charge. One thing that I will say is that I have a lot of respect for a man that says ‘you can do a better job than I can.’”

Gerriets’ decision could be considered well-advised, as Bain has an impressive career record in marketing strategy, technical writing, back-office administration, and community engagement, as well as with environmental concerns, such as river restoration. 

With entrepreneurship running in her family, Bain followed suit and is not only the CEO of ACRG, but is the founder of the socially and culturally conscious brand TBain & Co, and owner of Today’s Woman magazine. 

To the question of what Nederland can expect to get in return for ACRG/GIR’s 200-acre expansion, Bain discussed GIR’s supposed $20 million in investments in the community, from overseeing the Caribou cemetery to sponsoring Frozen Dead Guy Days. 

The Bain interview

Bain clarified her response in an interview with The Mountain-Ear.

“The $20 million impact really comes from being an employer. The investments that we made by securing contracts for various vendors. The contractors that we hired to work in and around the mine. The workforce that we invested in and put to work.

“In addition, the amount of funding that we were spending on housing,” Bain continued. “It was dollars that were used to operate the business that went directly back to the city’s bottom line.”

The downsizing of GIR’s workforce was lamented, and Bain explained how GIR’s loss was Nederland’s loss as well.

“I think back to before we had the cease and desist, and how large our workforce was, and how we were supporting the small business community, and it was really disappointing to see people lose their jobs. It was disappointing the small businesses that suffered because they didn’t have the patronage that was there.” 

There was also a long line of questioning regarding the general mistrust from the community, as well as the culture of silence, due to fear of retribution, that GIR perpetrated when it threatened to sue the Town of Nederland for $500 million. 

Bain addressed the misinformation that sparked the threat of a lawsuit: that the exceedances were of drinking water standards, when they were actually of aquatic life standards.

Despite that distinction, the City of Boulder remains wary of operations resuming at the Caribou and Cross Mines due to the perceived threat to Coon Track Creek and Barker Reservoir. 

“The only way to establish trust is to have the tough conversations and get on the same page,” Bain said, before reiterating that, due to the spread of falsehoods causing complications for GIR, they were in their right to sue to recoup those damages.

The Hendricks interview

Though Maggi Hendricks was unable to attend the Meet and Greet, she came prepared for an interview with The Mountain-Ear, having spent the time to pore over every sentence of the DMO permit application and to narrow down her talking points regarding the 124 issues within the DMO application that were highlighted from DRMS’s initial review.  

“I think it’s really interesting that [GIR] continuously says that everyone in Nederland is misinformed, because I don’t think they realize how informed people actually are,” Hendricks said, adding that GIR was, by extension, calling DRMS misinformed, "because that’s where people are getting their information from.”

To hear the full audio transcript of the April 8, 2025, Meet and Greet event at The Caribou Room, go to: https://youtu.be/-GiE1HlBqUE?feature=shared .