Kris Peterson and Alex Klemt said it was an algorithm that led them west from Colorado Springs, up a rough dirt road past the Camp Bird Mine, and into the lofty tundra of Governor Basin.

With the help of AI, the two men told Ouray County commissioners last week, they had searched far and wide across the West before identifying the derelict Ruby Trust Mine as the next great wellspring of precious metals.

Powered by solar and with an all-American supply chain, they’d soon be churning out made-in-Colorado gold and silver if they could persuade the federal government to spot them a cool $110 million.

But Peterson and Klemt, who had hoped to secure the commission’s backing for their federal grant proposal, instead walked away empty-handed after commissioners raised eyebrows during a work session at discrepancies in their business plans and their nonexistent prior mining experience.

“I’ve been here for a super long time, and I have seen mining companies come and go pretty quickly,” Commissioner Michelle Nauer said at the Aug. 26 meeting. And after reading the duo’s business plan, she added, “I came out of it going, is this too good to be true?”

The co-founders of Minority Mining LLC insisted that they were serious about returning the Ruby Trust — and Ouray County mining — to its former glory. Both managers in the finance world, Klemt and Peterson said they’d concluded that gold, silver and other minerals buried in the San Juans will soon draw the same covetous eyes currently fixed on the rare-earth minerals market.

“Our hope is, well, next they’re going to have to support precious metals refining,” said Klemt.

Minority came in sporting an ambitious plan to pull hundreds of millions of dollars of gold and silver out of the Ruby Trust Mine, rehabilitate its mill and erect a refinery in Montrose. But hiccups in their pitch arose almost immediately, including when Peterson and Klemt admitted they lacked the proper zoning for their Montrose refinery and would likely have to look outside the city for a site.

“If I were writing a letter of support,” Commissioner Jake Niece told them, “it would come with a long list of qualifiers.”

As outlined in its proposal, Minority’s ambition is to acquire the 23 patented and 35 unpatented mining claims splayed across the 830 acres of the Ruby Trust, which sits high in Governor Basin southwest of Ouray. The operation would have Thorin Resources as a neighbor, which is attempting to restart mining at the nearby Revenue-Virginius Mine.

Minority says it would refurbish the Ruby Trust, where the company says nearly $750 million in minerals are waiting in the rock, rebuild the mill and refine the metals at a plant somewhere in Montrose County. That refinery — the one originally purported to be all but greenlit for inside the city limits — does not yet exist.

The property’s current owner, Bryan Walker, said his family has sold the land twice before, only to take it back both times from “ego-driven” companies. Walker is asking $12.5 million for the sale, according to Minority’s documents.

The key to the dream, however, is Minority’s ability to secure a $110 million grant from the Defense Industrial Base Consortium, a Pentagon program that provides direct capital investments to critical defense industries. Minority has pitched the venture as providing a secure, entirely U.S.-based source of not just gold and silver, but cobalt, platinum and manganese.

Projecting nearly $50 million in annual net income once the mine and refinery are fully operational, Minority says it can recoup the government’s investment by its third year.

But throughout Klemt and Peterson’s presentation, they faced a rising tide of skepticism that appeared to surprise them. Tanya Ishikawa, executive director of the Uncompahgre Watershed Partnership, raised flags about existing water quality issues at the Ruby Trust – which Walker later said had been overblown by the state – and the co-founders’ lack of experience in the sector.

Ishikawa said in the unforgiving San Juans, mining firms without a history of success “go bankrupt, they have fatal employee accidents, they do not produce promised economic booms, and they have repeated water quality non-compliance [issues].”

“We have good intentions, and that is really, really, truly appreciated,” added Commissioner Lynn Padgett, referring to the proposal, “but we don’t have a company with a track record.”

Klemt, according to his LinkedIn profile, has previously worked in finance at Moody’s Corporation and BNY Mellon. Peterson’s profile lists his occupation as an executive branch manager at West Capital Lending.

Further debate arose over the condition and use of County Road 361, where the county would have the most say over operations. While Minority has proposed to improve the road in partnership with the county, Kelly Ryan – owner of San Juan Huts and a member of the Ouray County Planning Commission – said the road’s rugged condition is one of its draws for locals and tourists alike.

Added Padgett, “If we start changing roads for things that boom and bust, then we’re actually harming our existing quality of life, livelihoods and economic vitality.”

“I don’t think we’re going to harm anything, because we’re improving the road,” Klemt replied. “The road needs improvement for safety reasons. My opinion [is], if there’s a mine or not, I think it needs improvement.”

Niece told the Plaindealer the day after the meeting that he’s supportive, in principle, of socially and environmentally responsible American mining operations, including in Ouray County. And while he said he wanted Minority to succeed, the errors in its filings “[do] make me question the veracity of the rest of the material that’s in there.”

“I am a proponent for ethical mining in the United States, where we can do it with good labor standards and good environmental practices. Hopefully, we can do that,” he said. “Will it be done? That’s the question we’re asking.”

Chart Riggall is a journalist with Report for America, a nonprofit program that helps boost reporting resources in underserved areas. He’s also part of the Western Environmental Reporting Collaborative, a partnership between Report for America, High Country News and local news organizations across the West.