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Decommissioning Plan Schwartzwalder Mine <br /> <br /> <br />RML CO-369-06 <br />Cotter Corporation (N.S.L.) 2 March 2017 <br />1.1 Location <br />The Schwartzwalder Mine is located in Section 25, Township 2 South, Range 71 West, 6th <br />Principal Meridian. The site is approximately eight miles northwest of Ralston Reservoir. A <br />location map for the Schwartzwalder Mine is provided in Figure 1. <br /> <br />1.2 Facility Description <br />The mine was an underground uranium mine occupying a portion of the company owned <br />property. The surface area affected by uranium mining operations was limited to 57 of the 562 <br />acres available at the site, with most of the site facilities situated along the floor of Ralston Creek <br />Canyon. The affected surface area included access and haulage roads, material storage and <br />handling locations, parking lots, and physical structures. <br /> <br />Generally, the site surface facility layout conformed to the northwest-southeast orientation of the <br />valley floor. The Ore Transfer Pad was located approximately 5 miles southeast of the Mine site. <br />Current and former mine facilities in the vicinity of areas tied to the RML, other than the ore <br />transfer pad, are shown in Figure 2. These RML areas include the ore crusher/sorter (RML #1), <br />the OWTP (RML #2), drying trenches used to dewater residues from early wastewater treatment <br />processes (RML #3), and new water treatment plant (NWTP) (RML #4). Figure 3 shows the <br />location of the NWTP and RML #4, and Figure 4 shows the RML #4 restricted area and license <br />boundary. Descriptions of current or former site facilities and respective functions associated <br />with the RML are as follows. <br /> <br />1.2.1 New Water Treatment Plant (NWTP) – Current Facility <br />The NWTP is located in a topographically elevated area called the mesa, near one of the mine <br />entrances called the “Steve Adit”. This building will contain the IX treatment system to be <br />relocated from the OWTP and also contains a reverse osmosis (RO) treatment train. RO <br />treatment is not considered a licensed activity but is housed in a portion of the NWTP. RML #4 <br />depicts the licensed area as the footprint of the NWTP building. <br /> <br />1.2.2 Old Water Treatment Plant (OWTP) – Current Facility <br />Wastewater treatment for the site prior to 1976 consisted of three shallow settling ponds (Old <br />Ponds), the use of which was abandoned upon construction of a wastewater treatment plant. The <br />Old Ponds Facility was constructed in the late 1960s to remove suspended solids from the mine <br />drainage after it was pumped from the underground workings. The Old Ponds saw the first use <br />of chemical treatment for mine drainage through the addition of barium for radium treatment. <br />Cotter performed this on a trial basis just prior to abandonment of the Facility. The Old Ponds <br />were later buried with sediments in place during construction of the Ore Crusher-Sorter Facility <br />in 1976. <br /> <br />A wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and Barrens Ponds were constructed in 1976 - 1977. The <br />Barrens Ponds were originally installed as the primary sedimentation basins for the WWTP. The <br />1977-era WWTP was designed to remove uranium, radium and suspended solids from both the <br />mine drainage pumped from the underground workings at the Mine, and surface water runoff