2023-10-27_INSPECTION - C1981018

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October 19, 2023 C-1981-018/Deserado Mine TJ1 Number of Partial Inspection this Fiscal Year: 3 Number of Complete Inspections this Fiscal Year: 1 Page 3 of 11 the lower facilities pad. The pond receives and treats all runoff from the main facilities area. The pond was impounding water. The pond’s embankment was stable with vegetative cover. There were no indications of erosion. The pond was being mucked out at the time of the inspection with a long arm excavator and haul truck (Photo 2). Muck that was removed from the ponds was hauled to the refuse pile for final placement. The pond is only 6 feet deep and surface crews can visually determine when the pond needs to be cleaned. The PP-1 Pond is located on the prep plant bench. The pond was holding water during the inspection. No discharge was observed. The discharge outlet was unobstructed. The pond was stable and there were no erosional concerns identified. The will remove sediment from PP-1 once they have completed work at pond DP-1. The PP-2 Pond is located on the upper facilities bench. PP-2 was also holding water with no discharge occurring (Photo 3). The pond’s embankment was vegetated and stable. No erosional concerns were observed. The operator stated that pond PP-2 will not be cleaned until the equipment in the electric yard below the pond is removed to provide safe access for equipment. A sump, RS-1, and a pond, RR-1, are located below the south embankment of the rail loadout. The RS-1 sump was dry at the time of the inspection. The sump’s embankments were stable with no erosion. The outlet for the sump was observed to be clear. The RR-1 pond was also dry. The pond’s embankment was covered with vegetation and stable. The inlet to the pond has minor erosion (Photo 4) as previously documented. The erosion has down-cut the inlet into the south embankment of the rail loadout. This erosional feature has been documented in previous DRMS inspections and is not thought to cause any structural instability. The pond’s outlet was clear. The B Seam No. 2 Dewatering System is located to the east/southeast of the Slot Storage Facility. The dewatering system consists of three cells; an upper, middle and lower. The lower cell is not utilized currently with the dewatering system. The middle cell was holding water below the level of the primary spillway, no discharge was occurring. The upper cell was dry. The east embankment of the upper cell had been recently repaired. Embankments for the system were stable with vegetative cover. There were no indications of erosional features. The B Seam No. 1 Dewatering System was active during the inspection. All cells of the dewatering system were impounding water. Discharge from the concrete flume at the Last Chance Pond was observed (Photo 5). The discharge outlet was clear of obstructions. The embankments of the dewatering system were stable with vegetative cover. No indications of erosion were observed. The RP-1 Pond is located at the northern base of the reclaimed RP-1 Refuse Pile. The pond was dry at the time of the inspection. The embankment was vegetated and stable. The primary discharge outlet’s trash rack was clear of debris. The embankment was vegetated and stable. No erosional concerns were identified. The RP-2/3 Pond receives runoff from the eastern portion of the RP-2/3/4 Refuse Pile. The pond consists of an east cell, a west cell and a main cell. Only the east cell was holding water during the inspection. There was no discharge observed from the east cell’s outlet into the main cell. The trash rack over the main cell’s outlet was clear. The embankments for the pond were stable with vegetative cover. There were no indications of erosion. The RP-4 Pond received runoff from the western portion of the RP-2/3/4 Refuse Pile. RP-4 was dry at the time of the inspection. The outlet’s trach rack was unobstructed. The pond’s embankment was vegetated and stable. No erosional features were seen.