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Mr. Raymond Lazuk June 28, 2017 <br /> Climax Molybdenum Company, Climax Mine 5 1661214 006 RSP RevO <br /> One recent trend that Golder has observed for large mine waste structures is the standards of care being <br /> adopted for critical structures are similar to the requirements developed for impoundments. Specifically,the <br /> earthquake reoccurrence intervals are being selected based on the design life and risk level, with an OBE <br /> developed to evaluate the relatively short-term operational life of the facility, and a MDE developed to <br /> evaluate performance of the facility under long-term conditions (e.g., post closure). It should be recognized <br /> that for the long-term closure scenario, the corresponding MDE represents a conservative long-term <br /> reoccurrence interval, which varies depending on the risk level posed by the facility, but is commonly <br /> defined as the 1-in-2,475-year event, or the event with 2%probability of exceedance over a 50-year period. <br /> The corresponding FoS calculated using the larger MDE will inherently result in lower FoS relative to the <br /> more short-term OBE event. However, evaluating the MDE allows the consequence of a larger, low <br /> probability event to be more realistically estimated.As a result,the actual risk to the facility is arguably less, <br /> provided an appropriate event is selected for the MDE and the consequences of the MDE (e.g., FoS or <br /> calculated displacement) are acceptable. <br /> Although criteria for dams are generally considered to represent a more stringent condition than for a non- <br /> impounding OSF, the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) guidelines are useful for <br /> comparison with the project design criteria. For reference, consider the (COLD criteria from Bulletin 148, <br /> "Selecting Seismic Parameters for Large Dams" (ICOLD 2016),where ICOLD defines two different seismic <br /> events. The Safety Evaluation Earthquake(SEE), which is analogous to the MDE as defined in the Climax <br /> OSF evaluations, and the OBE. Under ICOLD's terminology, the SEE and OBE are both evaluated, but <br /> with different criteria for acceptable performance. Specifically: <br /> ■ SEE is defined as "the maximum level of ground motion for which the dam should be <br /> designed or analyzed... It will be required at least that there is no uncontrolled release of <br /> water when the dam is subjected to the seismic load imposed by the SEE". ICOLD notes <br /> that a higher level of performance should be expected under the OBE (e.g., a higher FoS). <br /> ■ OBE is defined as"the level of ground motion at the dam site for which only minor damage <br /> is acceptable...In many cases, it will be appropriate to choose a minimum return period of <br /> 145 years (i.e., a 50% probability of not being exceeded in 100 years)" <br /> The analysis presented in Golder(2017)was developed to be generally consistent with this philosophy. <br /> It is recognized that there are many documents that can be sited associated with regulatory oversight of <br /> the mining industry and which generally reflect the current the standard of care for the industry. One <br /> commonly referenced document is the Best Available Demonstrated Control Technologies (BADCT) <br /> document by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ 2016). As a comparison, the <br /> prescriptive stability criteria for a large dump leach, which is considered analogous to the Climax OSFs, <br /> consists of: <br /> ■ Static Factor of Safety= 1.3 <br /> ■ Pseudo-static factor of safety = 1.0, or alternatively the predicted magnitude of displacements <br /> will not jeopardize the facility containment. <br /> • The earthquake to be considered in the pseudo-static evaluation is defined in different <br /> ways within the document, alternately as "the maximum earthquake likely to occur <br /> during a 100-year interval (80% probability of not being exceeded in 100 years)" and <br /> "largest earthquake with a 100-year return interval."The 1 in 100-yr event specified is <br /> considered analogous to the OBE developed for the Climax OSFs (Golder selected a <br /> 1-in-475-year reoccurrence interval which is typically acceptable for water retention <br /> structures). <br /> • Where human life is potentially threatened, ADEQ includes a requirement for <br /> consideration of the maximum credible earthquake. While Golder does not consider <br /> the Climax OSFs to be critical life threatening facilities to the general public similar to <br /> Golder <br /> es to DRM Comments 28JUN17 docxAssociates <br /> 1661214 006 RSP RevO Responses S <br />