BOZEMAN – The CEO of a multinational mining company has bought the Sun Ranch, an 18,500-acre tract of land west of Yellowstone National Park.
Madison County Clerk and Recorder Peggy Kaatz said Monday that Sun Ranch Partners bought the ranch near Cameron on Friday. According to information filed with the Secretary of State’s office, Sun Ranch Partners is managed by Richard C. Adkerson, CEO of Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. It was unclear how much Adkerson paid for the property, which was listed at $42 million as of last Friday.
A spokesman for the mining company declined to comment.
The 62-year-old Adkerson has been the company’s CEO since 2003 and is listed as one of the highest paid executives in America by Forbes and Fortune magazines. Business Week also lists him as the director of FM Properties, Inc., a real estate investment and development company.
Former owner Roger Lang, who made his fortune in the software industry in Silicon Valley, bought the ranch from actor Steven Seagal in 1998 and put the property under a management plan meant to promote wildlife and open space while continuing ranch operations. He put a large majority of the ranch under a conservation easement, then carved out 10 home lots and put them on the market for between $5 million and $8 million.
Lang, who could not be reached for comment, told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle in 2008 that he hoped the idea would make conservation profitable and lead to 1 million acres being put under conservation over the next decade.
But last April he put the ranch up for sale for $55 million, citing the economic downturn.
“I’ve achieved what I’ve wanted to do there,” he told the Chronicle last year. “It’s 98 percent under conservation easement, so I feel very, very good about that.”
Adam DeFanti, vice president of marketing for Sun Ranch, said at the time the sale would not affect the conservation easements.