ENFORCE27074

• Permit No: M1988112
• IBM Index Class Name: Enforcement
• Doc Date: 2/21/1997
• Doc Name: CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS FOR POSSIBLE OUT OF CONTAINMENT DISCHARGE OF CYANIDE SAN LUIS PROJECT M-88-112
• From: DMG
• To: MIKE LONG
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

• iii iiiiiiiiiiiu iii ~

STATE OF COLORADO
DIVISION OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGY
Depanmenl ul Natural Resources
1717 Sherman 51., Room 215
Denver, Cobrado 80207
Phone: [phone]
FA%: (3071 872-8106
DATE: February 21, 1997
TO: Mike Long, H. Bruce
FROM: James Dillie ~~,.
~I~~~
DEPARTMENT OF
NATURAL
RESOURCES
Humphries, James Stevens co erno of
lames S Lxhhead
Execwive Director
Michael B. Long
Division Director
RE: Chronology of Events for Possible Out of Containment Discharge
(leak) of Cyanide, San Luis Project, M-88-112
The Division was notified on November 25, 1996 (by phone; followed by
a letter) that after BMRI personnel cleaned out the leach tanks at
the San Luis Mine they discovered a few areas in the bottom of two of
the tanks (#5 and #7) where welds had separated and/or small holes
had developed.
The Division inspected the tanks on December 13, 1996 and confirmed
that both tanks had developed sizable holes in the bottom. It
appeared these tanks had leaked leaching liquids (which generally
contains 250-280 ppm cyanide) into the underlying sedim@nts so the
Division issued a Reason to Believe letter to the gperator on
December 26, 1996 for allowing an out of containment discharge of
cyanide which is in possible violation of C.R.S. 34-32-124 for
failure to comply with the conditions of the approved permit
(specifically Section D.5 which states, in part, that "the mill
circuit has been designed as a closed circuit operation with no
potential for cyanide solutions in the mill to discharge to the
environment.").
Meanwhile, the Division received a letter from Charlie Jaquez on
December 20, 1996 where he asked the Division to investigate whether
tanks number 5 and 7 were in fact leaking cyanide solution. He
stated in his letter that a concerned BMRI employee is anonymously
claiming that tanks 5 and 7 have been leaking for over twp years and
that little or nothing is being done to correct the problem.
Further, states Mr. Jaquez, it is alleged that BMRI is Covering up
this serious matter. Since this letter was addressed to Barbara
Green (Board member) Mike responded, on behalf of Ms. Gr@en, to Mr.
Jaquez on December 26, 1996.
On December 30, 1996 the Division inspected the site once again.
This time a soil sample was removed from the bottom of tahk #7 after
the operator cut out a portion of the steel plate. The sample was
delivered to the CDOH lab and analyzed for cyanide. The lab result
shows 12 ug/g of total cyanide but did not detect any WAD cyanide.