1987-01-08_REVISION - M1977493 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~r delivery pipelines to deposition areas (tailing ponds} north of the mine site. The tailing sands settle out on the surface of the tailing ponds, and the water is decanted and pumped back to the mill within the recycle industrial water circuit. Tailing from the Climax operation is composed predominately of silica. The tailing contains no toxic or hazardous materials. The Climax Mine is supported by three tailing deposition areas (Figure 1); all of which presently are considered active in varying degrees. The newest and farthest downstream on Tenmile Creek (toward Copper Mountain) is the Mayflower Pond, followed upstream by the Tenmile Pond, and lastly, the Robinson Pond. Presently, the Mayflower Pond is being utilized as a water treatment system with no active deposition of tails; the Tenmile Pond is the active tailing deposition pond. The Robinson Pond presently is inactive as a deposition area, but is used as part of the water flow and control system for the mine. The total areal extent of the combined tailing ponds, including the dam faces, is approximately 1700 acres. / The Problem l During a site inspection by personnel from the Pueblo District Office of the Colorado Department of Health, Air Pollution Control Division on September 18, 1986, the Climax Mine was cited for particulate emissions exceeding the 20~ opacity standard as per Colorado Air Quality Control. Regulation No.l, Section III.D.l.c. The citation pertained to wind blown tailing dust. In addition, the inspection report indicated that complaints had been received by the Division relative to blowing tailing dust. AMAX and Climax recognize that there have been several incidents of blowing tails during the summer of 1986. Although an effort was made to prevent these incidents, the effort, unlike in past years, was not entirely successful. For the last 12 years, Climax has had an intensive tailing dust suppression plan in place. Over .the last 11 years, approximately 5750,000 has been expended on control of particulate emissions from the tailing ponds. As discussed herein, the effort to control wind blown tailing dust will be intensified for 1987 and beyond. However, it should be noted that high intensity winds occur with some regularity at- elevations in excess of 10,000 feet in Colorado. These winds many times exceed 50 mph. Thus, regardless of what type of suppression technology is applied, best engineering, technology which. is economically reasonable cannot hope to achieve 1008 success.