The asphalt rock of Kyrock was used on the streets of Havana, Rio de Janeiro and the Indianapolis Speedway, and now it could be used to produce energy.

The state’s economic development incentive legislation approved during the special session provides incentives to companies making a capital investment of $100 million for an energy production facility that uses oil shale or tar sands.

While not a true tar sand, Kyrock is close enough to be considered one. Kyrock is sandstone with asphalt, according to Michael May, a geology professor at Western Kentucky University.

Reynolds Raw Materials owns much of the mineral rights and thousands of acres of surface land in counties, including Edmonson, that are home to Kentucky Asphalt Rock Quarry.

Larry Glass of Glass Construction is now leasing from Reynolds what was called Indian Creek Quarry and mining it on a per project basis, with state permission. The Kyrock is mixed with blacktop for paving projects.

“I just used it on a parking lot in Glasgow this afternoon,” Glass said Wednesday.

Edmonson County Judge-Executive N.E. Reed said he just heard about the legislation, so he is not too familiar with its details.

“But anything that can promote this mineral is to the area’s advantage,” Reed said. “The supply is abundant. The reason that mining was discontinued years ago was because the cost of mining versus oil costs back then were too high. But now with oil costs still fairly high, it is much more feasible.”

Glass said companies are extracting the oil now from tar sands in Canada and Texas.

“It would definitely help Edmonson County,” he said.

May said Kyrock mining has a long history in Edmonson County.

“There were mining or quarrying towns near Kyrock such as Sweeden, which still exists today, and defunct towns such as Ridgedale,” May said in an e-mail to the Daily News. “There were (more than) 2,000 people living in or around Kyrock during its heyday. Vice President (Alben) Barkley even visited the town’s asphalt loading dock to see the economic development. The streets of Rio, Havana and the Indy 500 track were all paved with asphalt rock that was pulverized and then ‘laid cold’ on a warm day and then they just rolled it like ready mix.”

But the oil production from tar sands has been somewhat controversial with environmentalists because it takes a lot of energy to melt the tar sands to extract the oil. Whether that is what would happen here if the oil were to be extracted is unclear.

“As far as road use it has a lot of benefits, but we are looking well beyond that,” said William R. Florman, vice president of Reynolds Raw Materials.

While Glass is the only company using Kyrock right now, Florman said that Scotty’s in Bowling Green has assured him that as soon as it whittles down its pile of recycled asphalt, the company will start using Kyrock on its road projects.

Florman said one of Reynolds’ partners helped push for the legislation to be approved. But the process used to further develop the mineral is proprietary at this point, he said.

“We are going to develop it on several different levels – surface mining being one of them,” Florman said. “This legislation is a positive step for sure.”

Florman said the company has attorneys studying the legislation to see what is required in terms of capitalization for a qualifying project.

After the Fourth of July holiday, he expects to have an answer fairly quickly as to how the company will proceed.