More than 2,000 acres of federally held subsurface mineral rights in eastern Mesa County sold for $391,400 Thursday at a Bureau of Land Management auction in Lakewood.
The 2,060-acre parcel sits under the more than 3,300-acre Parker Basin Ranch, located south of Collbran on 58 Road.
Jim Sample, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management, said the parcel was one of the 46 parcels totaling 28,546 acres that sold at the lease sale.
Several conservation groups, including the Mesa Land Trust, had protested the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to auction off the Parker Basin parcel.
Earlier this week, ranch owner Robert Lapsley said gas wells atop his property could drive deer and elk from the area.
“The areas that they are talking about drilling is a calving area for the local elk herd,” he said. “Personally I just think they could find something better (to develop).”
The sale overall netted nearly $4 million, 48 percent of which will flow to Colorado, Sample said.
The high bid at the lease sale, he said, was a $528,000 bid for a 160-acre parcel in Weld County.
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E-mail Mike Saccone at msaccone@gjds.com.
