On July 14, the Basin Art Mine welcomed the public to a night of theater and exhibition. The inaugural evening, attended by more than 140 community members, was meant as a capstone to a year-long renovation project — and the foundation for a new creative community.
Basin resident Bryher Herak had created the new community space from seven conjoined properties, including a onetime mining mill building. She purchased the properties at a sheriff’s auction in 2023, the result of a court order against the OT Mining Corporation’s Basin Mill operation.
Three days before the Art Mine celebration, however, OT Mining filed a complaint against Jefferson County, Herak and others who purchased parcels of its former mining facility, claiming that it was effectively barred from redeeming its properties by County officials.
The future of the Basin Art Mine may now be at risk.
OT Mining’s latest legal action is anchored in a long history. In 1980, according to its website, the Canadian company entered into a joint venture to explore potential reserves at the Ruby Mine, which had produced gold and silver from 1885 to 1912. Early exploratory work identified six potential mining targets, according to the company — but actual production in the area never commenced.
OT Mining fell delinquent on its property tax obligations after a lawsuit was brought by a consortium of its investors in 2015. That complaint accused the company and its officers of obfuscating a $20 million loss on filed tax returns, of deliberately misrepresenting the financial state of the company in order to fraudulently solicit new investment, and of other negligent behaviors primarily facilitated by its CEO, Rosemary Christensen. After four years of litigation, the Fifth Judicial District Court awarded the plaintiffs more than $435,000 in damages and legal fees.
In the wake of its failure to pay taxes to the County, some of OT Mining’s properties in Basin were sold at Sheriff’s auctions in Nov. 2022 and July 2023. The parcels attracted several buyers, including Herak, who spent over $150,000 acquiring the plots that now comprise the Basin Art Mine.
Under state law, however, debtors such as OT Mining can redeem their property from the purchaser up to one year following a Sheriff’s sale, if they pay the amount of the purchase plus interest, taxes paid, and the cost of repairs and maintenance.
OT Mining’s complaint claims that it made several attempts to redeem its properties before the July 15, 2024 deadline, but was prevented from doing so by Jefferson County. The complaint also suggests that the County either miscalculated or deliberately misled OT Mining as to the amount of money required to fulfill its tax obligations and redeem the properties.
By OT Mining’s account, the County said it was denying the company’s attempts to redeem its properties primarily because of a 2015 investigation by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), Québec’s financial regulator, which resulted in OT Mining being issued a cease-trade order by the Canadian Securities Exchange. That order prevents Canadian investors from engaging in any trading activity with the company’s stock.
According to the complaint, Jefferson County also denied OT Mining’s attempts to make payment due to the fact that the person attempting to do so, Legacy Mining CEO Owen Voigt, had no official relationship with OT Mining. Voigt, whose Legacy Mining primarily repurposes and reclaims defunct mining facilities, conducted an earth-moving operation for OT Mining in 2013. He told The Monitor that, after completing the project, he remained in touch with Christensen, who personally requested he “keep others from obtaining the land.”
While he describes himself as an “associate” of OT Mining, Voigt said no contractual relationship presently exists between him and the firm. “I am not OT Mining,” said Voigt in an interview. “But she (Christensen) asked that I do something to try and help. If the County’s done everything right, then the land will go where it’s supposed to. If not, then it should still be Rosemary’s.” Voigt personally hired an attorney to file a complaint on behalf of OT Mining.
County Treasurer Terri Kunz declined to comment on the complaint for fear, she said, of impacting active litigation. In a 2023 email to Voigt, which was attached as an exhibit to OT Mining’s complaint, she wrote: “After many discussions with attorneys… we will not honor any attempt at redemption of the tax deeds pending for OT Mining. Any presentation of deeds that involves any folks ‘representing’ themselves as owners or contacts for OT Mining will be declined. We believe that these deeds would not be valid in a court of law based on the current information.”
Voight has, according to Herak, approached her multiple times in the last year in attempts to purchase some of her property, privately and without any declared affiliation to OT Mining. He also personally attended the July 2023 sheriff’s auction, though he bid on no property, Herak said.
“Mr. Voight contacted me a minimum of four times since the auction and asked to purchase some of the lots,” said Herak in an email to The Monitor. “I refused to sell him any lots. Not once, in any of those conversations did he suggest that he had any connection with OT Mining.”
“I believe that the county followed the law both with the auction and the tax liens,” she added.
OT Mining’s complaint seeks a judgment that would void the deeds to the properties that were bought at the Sheriff’s sales, clearing the way for OT Mining to redeem the properties. It also requests a preliminary and permanent injunction barring those who purchased the properties, including Herak, from “damaging, excavating, leveling, clearing, or otherwise constructing or making any form of improvements.”
