Salt Lake City, Utah-The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) found itself in what’s probably a unique situation last Tuesday (April 5) opening leasing bids on 125,762 acres of potash lands located on Dry Sevier Lake bed in west/central Utah. Only four bidders showed up at the BLM state headquarters here, and one of them identified as Peak Minerals Inc. of Salt Lake City was high bidder at $203.57 per acre on all 64 parcels and will have to relinquish all except 96,000 acres. BLM released only a two-paragraph statement saying that “due to federal rules on the leasing of solid minerals an entity may lease no more than 96,000 acres, and therefore Peak Minerals will be required to relinquish parcels until they meet that limit.” The other bidders were Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp. (GSLM), Luke Kline and Mathews Eggers, and Bro Energy LLC. The BLM stated that the relinquished parcels will be offered to the second highest bidder on each individual parcel, with that bidder having the option to accept or reject the offer. With the exception of GSLM, no information was available on any of the bidders except that Peak Minerals listed the same Salt Lake City address as Emerald Peak Minerals, a small Salt Lake City company described earlier by BLM officials as the project proponents, whose interest led to an environmental analysis and the decision to go out for a competitive lease sale. Phone calls to Emerald Peak were not returned. For some, Great Salt Lake Minerals’ bidding was a surprise because the company had been reported earlier as not being interested. GSLM spokesman Dave Hyams said, however, “We looked into the possibilities there, based on a number of factors, and submitted a bid during the lease bid period.” BLM has yet to indicate how soon the bidding complication will be resolved.
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