BOARD02364

• Board Meeting Date: 5/11/1998
• Description: ISF Section - Carbon Creek - Case No. 4-96CW311 - Mount Emmons Mining Company
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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TOWER I. SUITE 1000 11515 ARAP"HOE STREET I DENVER. COLORADO 80202 I TELEPHONE [phone] I FACSIMILE [phone]
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email: [e-mail]

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April 14, 1998

RECEIVED
APR 1 It 1998

Mr. Dan Merriman
Colorado Water Conservation Board
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203

Colorado Water
Conservation Board

Re: Request to Inundate for Carbon Creek Reservoir
Mt. Emmons Mining Company's Application for Conditional Water
Rights, Case No. 96CW311, Water Division No.4

Dear Dan:

e

On behalf of Mt. Emmons Mining Company, we submit for the Colorado Water
Conservation Board's consideration a Request to Inundate a Minimum Stream Flow
Reach on Carbon Creek, a Request to Defer Consideration of the Request to Inundate,
and a Proposed Stipulation between Mt. Emmons Mining Company and the Colorado
Water Conservation Board in Case No. 96CW311. At the suggestion of your staff, we
ask that the Request to Inundate, the Request to Defer and the Stipulation be considered
as components of a single application. By doing so, we believe that the Conservation
Board will best be able to effectively and efiiciently implement its inundation
regulations in this particular matter.

Introduction

Mt. Emmons Mining Company, a w!1Olly-owned subsidiary of Cyprus Amax
Minerals Company ("Cyprus"), owns the old Keystone Mine workings in Gunnison
County. The property contains the largest, undeveloped molybdenum ore body known
in the world. As currently producing molybdenum sources are depleted, Cyprus will
need to meet market demand by developing the Mt. Emmons Mine.

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The Mt. Emmons Mining Company recently filed an Application for
Conditional Water Rights in Water Division No.4. on December 31, 1996. Having a
fIrm supply of water is essential to a molybdenum mining operation, and Mt. Emmons
Mining Company determined that appropriating these water rights is an important step
in the process of developing the Mt. Emmons Property. Mt. Emmons Mining
Company is claiming direct flow water rights from the Slate River and Carbon Creek