Blue Mountain Minerals History (continued)
Under the ownership of United States Lime Corporation, the location was mined for the production of lime. Lime is made from naturally occurring limestone by heating the rock to drive off carbon dioxide. Material was mined and then transported to a kiln on Lime Kiln Road, south of Sonora. In 1958, the operation was transferred to the Flintkote Company. In the early 1990’s the Sonora lime kiln was shut down.
In 1983, an entrepreneur identified and later began initial development of the Marble Quarry Road site that now constitutes Blue Mountain Minerals’ main mineral reserves. The focus of this company was to produce material for the glass, animal feed, roofing, and electrical power industries. This entrepreneur formed a company called Blue Mountain Quarries that, due to a lack of capital, failed. In 1986, the entrepreneur was forced to put his operation into bankruptcy.
In 1987, Blue Mountain Minerals, (a California limited partnership) was formed to purchase the assets of the quarry out of bankruptcy. This company was headed by an affiliate of the Bechtel Company, an international engineering and construction company. Operations under new ownership began in 1988, but were not fully functional until late 1991. The new management team carried out a core-drilling program to prove enough reserves to justify the redesign of the existing processing facility and to add much needed product storage capacity. In addition, the implementation of improved management and engineering practices at the processing facility resulted in increases in throughput and total processing capacity.
Portola Minerals Company became involved in August of 1994 when it purchased the assets of Blue Mountain Minerals. At that time, the Portola Company rebuilt the existing processing plant, including a comprehensive retooling of the crushing, screening and classification equipment. This plant overhaul resulted in improvement in throughput and reliability. In addition, final product storage capacity was increased to over 11,000 tons, the largest amount of any limestone producer in California. Substantial improvements were also made to make the plant more environmentally friendly. «
Historic photos from the California Mother Lode