DRMS Comment Objection Intake 9/1/2021 10:39:17 AM

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Your Phone Number* Used only to follow up. 4147194434 Extension Alternate Phone Number Used only to follow up. Alternate Phone Extension Connection to Operation Select all that apply Land Owner of affected land Structure Owner within 200' of affected land Mineral Owner ✓ Nearby Resident Adjacent Land Owner Concerned Citizen Government Agency Other DESCRIPTION OF COMMENT OR OBJECTION as specific as possioi(, Comment/Objection Narrative This objection is to permit#M2021046-Zephyr Dawson Gold Mine(also attached as a pdf). It is being filed by a concerned citizen and close resident of the potential mining operation of the Dawson Gold Mine. We live in Dawson Ranch which is between 1.3 and 3 miles east of Zephyr's proposed"affected area".The elevation of our home is 5,996 feet(only 500 feet lower than the mine portal).Our home is approximately 1.7 miles away from and east of the mine site. If a wildfire is started at the mine site, it could burn down our home within 2 hours since wildfires in a semi-arid juniper forest can travel up to 4 miles per hour. The bottom line:There have been a significant number of disasters from mining activities in Colorado.This fact cannot be refuted.Approving Zephyr Minerals permit application could or is likely to add to the list of unintended disasters.The four fundamental flaws in the application documented below,non-compliance with HB19-1113, and risks that endanger this pristine area require that DRMS deny this permit without any consideration of potential revisions. The four fundamental flaws found in the application: EXPERT ANALYSIS Dr.Steven Emerman(Hydrologist)analyzed the permit application. Dr. Emerman has a B.S. in Mathematics from The Ohio State University, M.A.in Geophysics from Princeton University,and Ph.D. in Geophysics from Cornell University. Dr. Emerman has 31 years of experience teaching hydrology and geophysics, including teaching as a Fulbright Professor in Ecuador and Nepal,and has 70 peer-reviewed publications in these areas. He reports:"The application for the Dawson gold mine includes three fundamental flaws that require rethinking of the project from the very beginning.The first fundamental flaw is the underestimation of the water consumption of the gold mine by an order of magnitude. In summary,at the present time,there is certainly no assurance that mine dewatering could supply the probably necessary 100 gallons of water per minute.The predicted water consumption as stated in the application is 18.4%and 6.6%of the average for the gold mining industry, based on ore production and gold production respectively,even after adjusting industry averages for the reduction in water consumption resulting from filtered tailings technology.This is what is meant by a fundamental flaw that requires rethinking from the ground up. If there is no adequate source of water,then there is no way to construct a gold mine at the proposed location. It would be completely unacceptable for a regulatory authority to allow a mining project to go forward that was going to consume ten times as much water as it claimed that it was going to consume." "The second fundamental flaw is the assumption that water could be endlessly recycled through the mining operation with no chemical water treatment and no adverse effects.These adverse effects arising from a build- up of the dissolved solids content of the process water could include precipitation of salts onto all contact surfaces,clogging of pipes,clogging of the filter presses,and most importantly,the potential inability of the process water to function for the extraction of the gold concentrate. Finally,there is the problem of what to do