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Decommissioning Plan Schwartzwalder Mine <br /> <br /> <br />RML CO-369-06 <br />Cotter Corporation (N.S.L.) 1 March 2017 <br />1.0 INTRODUCTION <br />The Schwartzwalder Mine uranium deposit was discovered in 1949, with the first ore shipments <br />made in 1953. The property was purchased by the Denver- Golden Oil and Uranium Company <br />in 1956, which operated the mine until 1966. Cotter Corporation purchased the site in 1966 and <br />has operated the mine since that time. Typical underground excavation techniques were utilized <br />for mining. Both vertical “shrink stope” and horizontal “room-and-pillar” mining methods have <br />been employed. After excavation, underground, the ore was transported to the surface and <br />placed in open storage bins at an Ore Crusher-Sorter facility prior to its shipment by truck to the <br />Canon City Milling Facility (Mill) in Canon City, Colorado. The mine waste rock that was <br />produced as part of the underground mining operation was typically used as backfill in <br />underground stopes or transported to the surface and stored in the storage bins until final <br />placement on the surface waste-rock repository. <br /> <br />The Mine was operated under a Division of Minerals and Geology Mining Permit, a general <br />State of Colorado license for the possession and use of mined uranium ores, a specific State <br />license for the processing of radioactive materials issued by Colorado Department of Public <br />Health and Environment (CDPHE), and a State CPDS permit for mine water treatment and <br />discharge to waters of the State. The facilities governed by the specific Radioactive Materials <br />License C0-369-03S, were limited to ore crushing, ore sorting, stockpiling of sorted ore, haulage <br />of ore along the private mine roadway and water treatment/uranium recovery related to mine <br />dewatering operations. <br /> <br />Radioactive Materials License CO-369-03 authorized uranium-bearing ore production operations <br />as well as water treatment for mine dewatering operations. Cotter has terminated uranium <br />mining operations at the mine and has successfully decommissioned all ore production related <br />facilities (i.e. ore sorter-crusher plant, ore stockpile storage area and bins, ore transfer pad, water <br />treatment residue drying trenches, segments of the private ore haulage road and certain roadways <br />in the Bear Tooth Ranch development adjoining the former ore transfer pad). In addition to the <br />decommissioning of ore production facilities, Cotter decommissioned much of the former water <br />treatment facility equipment, including the Emergency Storage Pond. To allow for the <br />remediation of site groundwater, a new ion exchange (IX) treatment system was installed in the <br />old water treatment plant (OWTP) building. CDPHE issued Cotter, Radioactive Materials <br />License (RML) CO-369-06 authorizing possession and storage of source material (IX media <br />resin). Water Remediation Technologies (WRT), a CDPHE authorized service provider was <br />contracted by Cotter to operate the IX treatment system, specifically to perform IX resin media <br />exchanges and maintenance to the IX treatment system. RML CO-369-03S was terminated by <br />CDPHE and the remaining decommissioning activities relating to RML #2 were incorporated <br />into RML CO-369-06. Cotter plans to relocate the IX treatment system from the OWTP into a <br />new water treatment plant (NWTP), decommission the OWTP and related structures and soils <br />remaining in RML #2, release RML #2 from the license. The footprint of NWTP building that <br />will house the relocated IX treatment system will remain under the RML and is identified as <br />RML #4 <br />