New York voters have approved a proposal for an Adirondack mineral company to expand its Essex County pit mine onto 200 acres of state-owned land in exchange for 1,500 acres elsewhere.
NYCO Minerals Inc. says it will restore the 200 acres and return it to the state in about 10 years, after it blasts out the wollastonite, a mineral used in ceramics, plastics and paints. The company will also give the state 1,500 acres including mountain peaks and trout streams.
Proposition 5 had strong support locally, where the company employs about 100 people, but it split environmental groups.
The Sierra Club and Protect The Adirondacks said it would set a bad precedent. But the Adirondack Council said the 1,500 acres are worth far more ecologically and recreationally than the 200 acres.