Tag Archives: Drake Cement

Drake land grab grows

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PARKS — An email from Steve Dudley of Williams reports Drake Cement, a foreign owned company, has now claimed an additional 1416 acres of Kaibab National Forest land for yet another Pozzolan open pit site.

These most recent claims are called the Spring Valley claims and are located in Parks immediately behind Spring Valley Cabin, west of Spring Valley Road. Any development of this site into an open pit mine will result in loss of some very beautiful habitat and result in an immense increase of mining truck traffic down Spring Valley Road, through Parks.

Mr. Dudley wrote in the email, “If you have any concerns about this potential future development and you live in and around Parks, now is the time to say something. Once the trucks start rolling, it will be far too late.”

The Williams Grand Canyon Newspaper is developing an article on this recent development and would like to hear from and interview interested parties from Parks regarding their feelings about this.

According to Wikipedia, “The general definition of a pozzolan embraces a large number of materials which vary widely in terms of origin, composition and properties. Both natural and artificial (man-made) materials show pozzolanic activity and are used as supplementary cementitious materials. Artificial pozzolans can be produced deliberately, for instance by thermal activation of kaolin-clays to obtain metakaolin, or can be obtained as waste or by-products from high-temperature process such as fly ashes from coal-fired electricity production. The most commonly used pozzolans today are industrial by-products such as fly ash, silica fume from silicon smelting, highly reactive metakaolin, and burned organic matter residues rich in silica such as rice husk ash. Their use has been firmly established and regulated in many countries.”

He wrote, “Please feel free to share and alert the citizens of Parks to this. We need to hear from you! If you live in the Parks area and would like your voice heard please contact the Williams Newspaper at (928) 635-4426; (928) 699-8874 or write whowell@williamsnews.com.”

Public meeting March 29 for Drake Cement proposed exploration

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WILLLIAMS – The Kaibab National Forest will host a community meeting for Drake Cement’s proposed pozzolan exploration project to answer clarifying questions about the proposal and the overall environmental analysis process. All interested parties are welcome.

Community Meeting for Drake Cement proposed pozzolan exploration
(Open House – no scheduled presentations – come and go at your convenience)
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Williams High School Viking Grill (440 S 7th St, Williams, AZ 86046)
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

The purpose of scoping is to help the Forest Service understand concerns people have about the effects a project may have on natural and cultural resources and nearby communities. To be most helpful, comments should clearly articulate your concerns. Be as specific as possible and support your statements with facts and references, and be solution-oriented. Do more than just provide an opinion or vote. Note that names, addresses, and comments become part of the public record for the project.

You can submit your comments by email, mail, fax, or hand deliver it to the Williams Ranger District Office during business hours. There will also be a collection box at the meeting for hard-copy comments. Any hard copy comments should be as legible as possible to ensure they are properly transposed into the public record.

Email: comments-southwestern-kaibab-williams@usda.gov (include “Drake Bill Williams Exploration Project” in the subject line)

Mail and hand delivery:
Kaibab National Forest – Williams Ranger District
Attention: Drake Bill Williams Exploration
742 S. Clover Road
Williams, AZ 86046

Fax: (928) 635-5680

Information about the project can be found at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/DrakeProposedExploration.

Tom O’Hallern comments on Drake Cement

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WILLIAMS — On Tuesday, August 23, Tom O’Halleran from the 1st District of Arizona held a town hall meeting at the American Legion Cordova Post #13 on Grant Street. He spoke unfavorably of the location of the pozzolan mining operation by the Peruvian-owned company Drake Cement.

Local residents are concerned that mining operations in the Bill Williams Mountain watershed area could pose problems for the limited water resources of Williams. There are also concerns over why the foreign-owned Drake Cement has claimed over 800-acres of area used by a variety of wild life. The area is also a hunting area and a popular hiking and camping area.


The Forest Service’s Role in Minerals Management
According to the Kaibab Forest web site, the Forest Service’s role in minerals management is twofold: 1) to make minerals from National Forest lands available to the national economy and, at the same time, 2) to minimize the adverse impacts of mining activities on National Forest System surface resources.

  • United States mining laws, principally the Mining Law of 1872, confer a statutory right to search for minerals on public lands. The law provides US citizens the right to explore for and discover valuable mineral deposits on federal lands that are open to mineral entry.
  • Unless an area is withdrawn by the Secretary of Interior or excluded by an act of Congress, National Forest System lands are open to mining claims. The FS does not have the authority to withdraw lands from mining.
  • The Forest Service must consider all reasonable proposals for mineral operations on areas that are open to entry and complete the environmental review within a reasonable timeframe.
  • The Code of Federal Regulations (36 CFR 228(a) – Locatable Minerals) sets forth rules and procedures for operating on National Forest System lands so as to minimize adverse environmental impacts on surface resources.

Drake Cement is owned by Peruvian company Cementos Lima through a company called Skanon Investment, Inc. Enrique Rozas is the CEO for Drake Cement and has been the agent for Skanon Investments, inc. since July 21, 2016, according to Internet sources.