Utah picks new mineral contractor for US Magnesium site, calls it a 'significant win'

ROWLEY, Tooele County — Utah has selected a Texas-based mineral extraction company to help plan out the "responsible redevelopment" of the US Magnesium facility along the Great Salt Lake that it acquired earlier this year.

Mariana Minerals will map out a phased restart of lithium and magnesium mineral extraction at the site, which Utah purchased for $30 million. It pitched a plan to use newer, non-evaporative extraction technologies to extract lake minerals without using much water, state land managers said on Thursday.

The state projects it will bring strong royalty revenue that could help it carry out a likely lengthy remediation process. It's a "significant win" for the state and Great Salt Lake, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement.

"We are replacing a legacy polluter with an operator that will bring new technology to mineral extraction that is protective of the lake and its valuable water resources, and generate significant revenue that can be used to clean up this Superfund site rather than passing the costs onto taxpayers," he said.

US Magnesium operated the 4,500-acre facility for decades before it ceased mineral operations five years ago amid equipment failures that ultimately led to its bankruptcy filing last year.

It and Utah had clashed at times over pollution and water consumption, with the state claiming that 50,000 to 80,000 acre-feet of water was still being taken out of the Great Salt Lake every year even when it wasn't extracting minerals.

Utah swooped in when US Magnesium's assets went up for auction, outbidding LiMag Holdings, a company with ties to US Magnesium's primary owner, in January. It claimed the property and its nearly 145,000 acre-feet in water rights.

"Rather than just try to reorganize and do the same thing again … the state said, 'Hey, there's an opportunity, and we're going to step up,'" said Joel Ferry, then commissioner of the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

The Utah Legislature signed off on the deal, pushing money from a rainy-day account into a base budget that Cox signed.

However, the state also acquired a Superfund site that will likely take years to clean up at a "significant cost," Tim Davis, Utah environmental quality commissioner, warned in February.

The Great Salt Lake is full of salt, lithium, potash and magnesium that are in high demand. He and Ferry told KSL at the time that they believed new mineral extraction agreements with companies using new technologies that can extract them without using much water could help pay for the cleanup.

Mariana Minerals, which operates Copper One in San Juan County, views the old US Magnesium site as a "historic opportunity" to carry out the type of mineral development that Utah is seeking, said Turner Caldwell, the company's co-founder and CEO.

The company touts itself as extracting minerals tied to new energy, AI and defense technologies

Its plan calls for replacing the site's large industrial solar evaporation diversions with a new low-water processing system, while processing minerals that go toward energy needs and generating royalties to fund the site's remediation.

They also agreed to operate under a modernized Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands lease that ensures that it follows state and federal regulatory standards, according to the state.

"Our proposed, phased restart of lithium and magnesium production prioritizes water conservation, eliminates historically challenging air and wastewater emissions and accelerates the availability of funding for the site's environmental remediation," Caldwell said in a statement.

"The site is a strategic asset for the nation and the state," he added. "Our job is to restore it under a new set of principles and transform it into a 21st-century operation that we can be proud of."

Some work to focus on mineral resources has already begun.

Utah and Mariana Minerals are working to finalize the specific redevelopment terms, which will include the regulatory frameworks and milestones needed for the site's updates and cleanup, state officials said.