2016-03-07_HYDROLOGY - M1980244

• Permit No: M1980244
• IBM Index Class Name: Hydrology
• Doc Date: 3/7/2016
• Doc Name: Response to DRMS Drainage Question
• From: Neumont
• To: DRMS
• Email Name: TC1
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

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NE ` ' M O N ' Newmont Mining Corporation
Cripple Creek&Victor Gold Mining Co.
Environment and Social Responsibility P.O.Box 191
Victor,CO 80860
T 719-689-2977
F 719-689-3254
www.newmont.com
SENT CERTIFIED, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
7015-1660-0000-0779-5484
24 February 2016
Mr. Timothy Cazier, P.E. RECEIVED
Environmental Protection Specialist
Colorado Department of Natural Resources ✓MAR 0 3 2016
Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety
Office of Mined Land Reclamation CIV MINING AND SAFETY
I OF RECLAMATION
1313 Sherman Street, Room 215 M
Denver, Colorado 80203
Re: Permit No M-1980-244• Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Com an "CC&V"
Cresson Project; esponse to DRMS question on drainage from the southeast corner of the
High Grade Mill Pad(HGM)
Dear Mr. Cazier:
Based on photographs taken by DRMS during their December 2015 aerial inspection of the
Cresson Project and subsequently during DRMS ground inspections in January and February of
2016 the inspectors have asked questions about evidence of drainage around the southeast corner
of the HGM pad. In the meeting between DRMS and CC&V on 22 February 2016 you indicated
that the agency still had questions concerning if the engineered fill on the liner was saturated and
therefore the cause of the drainage or if there is another explanation? You also asked about
when the mill pad liner would be joined to the Phase 1 liner in the Squaw Gulch Valley Leach
Facility(VLF2),which would contain any future drainage in VLF2, a zero discharge facility?
While we have been aware of the seepage in question, at no point has it been substantial enough
that we could sample it to characterize the constituents. Our observation is that it was surface
meteoric water that has runoff the compacted surface of the HGM pad and under the equipment
berm along the edge of the pad. The extremely compacted nature of the surface conditions on the
working surface of the HGM pad essentially creates a false perched horizontal plane,which
allows water to flow across the pad and seep onto the perimeter slope of the HGM after heavy
precipitation events and becomes dry with seasonal weather. The sump on the southeast corner
of the pad had been kept pumped and so the runoff is not the result of the pad being saturated.
Water from the sump has been alternately sent to the storm water pond on the Arequa Valley
Leach Facility(VLF 1) directly down slope of the HGM pad to the south,pumped to the Process
Solution Storage Area(PSSA) in VLF2 or has been piped to wells on VLF2.