Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Memo to Board <br />BMRI Compliance Deadline <br />page 3 <br />Mountain Gold Tailings". Briefly, the liquids entrained within the <br />pre-July, 1992 tailings contain cyanide levels significantly in excess <br />of the permit standards. Up to 7.8 years will be required for, these <br />fluids to drain to the collection pond. Their inclusion in th <br />collection pond makes it impossible for the collection pond t attain <br />the permit standards. As the following summary of recorded WA cyanide <br />levels demonstrates, the collection pond cyanide levels are responding <br />to treatment by mixing but much less rapidly than the tailings ponds. <br />Further, because the highest cyanide content liquids have yet to reach <br />the collector bed, I anticipate that cyanide levels in the effluent to <br />the collection pond may increase during the 7.8 year purging c cle. <br />(4) The chemical responsiveness of the tailings ponds to the imple entation <br />of the INCO treatment process will be limited by the ability t <br />circulate the liquids in the standing tailings pool through th ore <br />processing circuit. Unlike the invasive Hydrogen Peroxide tre tment <br />process reaction which occurred in the ponds, the INCO process occurs <br />within the INCO reactor vessel. BMRI projected the ability of the ore <br />processing circuit to treat the standing tailings pool as a po tion of <br />TR-004, the CYTOX treatment revision. BMRI estimated that 21 ays was <br />required to circulate the standing pond liquids through the pl nt. <br />Further, in order to accommodate dispersion and mixing within he pond <br />BMRI assumed that two cycles (42 days) might be required to ex ose all <br />tailings liquids to the process. I believe this is an appropriate <br />assumption in this instance as well. Therefore, if processing commences <br />on October 15th, the tailings ponds standing pools should achi ve <br />compliance with the permit standards by November 26, 1992. <br />Therefore, if a realistically achievable compliance deadline is to b imposed <br />upon Battle Mountain Resources, Inc., I believe the Board should imp se the <br />date of November 30, 1992, and limit its application to the tailings ponds. <br />The Division may recommend additional corrective actions be applied o the <br />collection pond in future months. <br />Ascertaining Compliance <br />In order to enforce the compliance deadline it will also be necessar for the <br />Board to specify the standard to be applied in judging compliance. n <br />approving TR-010, the Division approved the use of a simple 30-day a erage <br />method to determine compliance with permit cyanide levels. BMRI is equired <br />to perform total and WAD cyanide analyses on a minimum of four compo ite pond <br />samples taken five to nine days apart. The average of these analyse for a <br />30-day period determine compliance for the month. The application o the <br />30-day average method will make it impossible to determine compliant before <br />December 30, 1992. Therefore, for purpose of timely judging complia ce with <br />the imposed compliance deadline, the Board would need to impose an <br />instantaneous single sample standard. <br />