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Jamie Valdez <br /> Community Organizer <br /> Mothers Out Front <br /> jamie.valdez@mothersoutfront.org <br /> mothersoutfront.org <br /> Represented by NPEU <br /> INFORM <br /> Arkansas Valley Conservation Coalition•Center for Biological Diversity•Citizens <br /> for Clean Air and Water in Pueblo/Southern Colorado•Colorado Citizens Against <br /> ToxicWaste Inc. •Colorado Native Plant Society•Colorado Sierra Club <br /> Conservation Colorado•Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship•Dawson <br /> Ranch Homeowners Association•Earthworks•Fremont Adventure Recreation <br /> Great Old Broads for Wilderness•High Country Conservation Advocates <br /> INFORM•PSR Colorado•Quiet Use Coalition•Royal Gorge Preservation Project <br /> Sheep Mountain Alliance•Wild Connections <br /> September 1,2021 <br /> Tim Cazier <br /> Environmental Protection Specialist <br /> Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining&Safety <br /> 1313 Sherman Street, Room 215 <br /> Denver,Colorado 80203 <br /> Cc: Minerals Program Director Russ Means <br /> Division Director Ginny Brannon <br /> Governor Jared Polis <br /> Re: Dawson Gold Mine, M-2021-046 <br /> Dear Mr. Cazier, <br /> We are writing on behalf of the undersigned organizations to object to the permit <br /> application filed by Zephyr Gold USA Ltd. ('Zephyr")(M-2021-046)to develop the <br /> Dawson Gold Mine just outside Canon City,Colorado. Our organizations collectively <br /> represent over 100,000 Coloradans across the state who are steadfastly opposed to the <br /> Dawson Gold Mine because of its location,the threat it poses to the local community, <br /> environmental impacts,and threats to wilderness, recreation and cultural resources, <br /> among others.Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the application and we <br /> appreciate your consideration of this objection. <br /> We have the following comments: <br /> The Dawson Gold Mine is located adjacent to and overlaps with numerous <br /> protected public lands that will be detrimentally and permanently degraded by mining <br /> and the associated haulage,water consumption, noise,dust and other intense <br /> disturbances associated with extractive industry that will occur if gold mining is <br /> authorized. By limiting its permit application strictly to its privately held inholdings,the <br /> true extent of future expansion and the scale to which the plans to develop adjacent <br /> public lands is obscured.Among those adjacent lands are a proposed wilderness area, <br /> an already-designated Wilderness Study Area,a BLM Area of Critical Environmental <br /> Concern,a Colorado State Stewardship Trust Parcel,a Colorado Natural Heritage <br /> Program Potential Conservation Area,a city-owned conservation park,an important <br /> recreation and trails area,and a cherished brown trout fishery in an important tributary to <br /> the Arkansas River. <br /> Zephyr currently owns or has claimstaked approximately 3,564 acres that cross <br /> over an area approximately eight square miles,despite having submitted the current <br /> permit application for an area of just 312 acres,while claiming only 82 acres will be <br /> disturbed.This claim is likely a gross understatement.Zephyr has staked approximately <br /> 27 unpatented mining claims on public lands that cover the Lower Grape Creek <br /> Wilderness Study Area as well as leased from the Colorado State Land Board the <br /> 640-acre Grape Creek-Horseshoe Mountain Stewardship Trust parcel.Zephyr has <br /> additionally staked 51 claims on public lands adjacent to the proposed permit area that <br /> partly cover the lands known as Ecology Park and the South Canyon Trails system. <br /> Further west, in the Green Mountain area,Zephyr has staked 62 claims that could be <br /> designated wilderness as approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 under <br />