Commissioner Steve Taylor Approves Dellinger Mining Request

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Bartow County Commissioner Steve Taylor approved a request to rezone land at Cartersville Ranch, which paves the way for surface mining to take place on the property.

Taylor on Wednesday, Feb. 11 approved a request from James Dellinger to rezone 211 acres from R-1 (residential) to M-1 (mining) to mine ochre at the location, according to The Daily Tribune News.

Taylor approved the request a week after two well-known families in Bartow County settled a dispute over mining rights in the northwest corner of the county, the Tribune says.

Dellinger owns the mineral rights to the property while Cartersville Ranch, which is where the property is located, is the surface rights owner, Bartow County Zoning Division Manager Brandon Johnson previously told Patch.

The battle to mine ochre on the property has been a longstanding conflict between Dellinger and the Rollins family.

According to the Tribune, the Rollins family — owners of the Ranch — sued Dellinger in an attempt to revoke mineral rights. The article refers to a 1918 deed, which references W.C. Satterfield selling the surface land to L.L. Cline, but reserving the mineral rights to the property. Those rights were subsequently passed down to Dellinger, Satterfield’s grandson.

Dellinger said the ranch tried to take away rights it didn’t own. The Georgia Supreme Court in November ruled in favor of the Dellinger family.

Read more of the Tribune’s article here.

Based on that ruling, Dellinger moved ahead with plans to mine ochre — a mineral used as a coloring agent in concrete — on the ranch, which sits north of the S.R. 20 interchange with I-75.

Johnson also said ochre is a common mineral in the area.

“Surface mining does not involve blasting or drilling,” Johnson previously told Patch. “The usual method is digging on the surface with an excavator or similar machine.”