GENERAL34192

• Permit No: M1988112
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 3/24/1992
• From: JOHNSON RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CORP
• To: ROY ROMER
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

ALBUQUERQUE JOURN.IL Sunday, February 23, 1992
Pegasus s~. Firm Seeks Permission
To -Use
By Ben Neary
Method Near
JOURNAL NORniERN BUREAU
SANTA FE -Pegasus Gold
Corp. will spray 3,000 tons of
cyanide a year for 10 years on
huge piles of crushed rock In the
~a`nta Fe
Once the cyanide solution flows
through the ore, it's pumped to a
building where the. gold is re-
moved through an electroplatlaq
process. After the gold is re
moved, the cyanide solution is
reapplied to the ore on the pads.
Ortiz Mountahts U tt gets permts-
lion to operate its planed gold Tye corn
PAY Plans to use moro
than 250 tons of cyanide a month
mine
Opponents fear water pollution. Phillips said there will be no
In Pegasus' planned cyanide ~
t
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ell

heap leaching method
awater- b
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cyanide solution drains through where.
huge ore piles and leacbea out The ore will remain permeneat-
microscopic flecks o[ gold that ly on the pads after the gold!is
otherwise can't be recovered eco- leached out. Terry Bauer, protect
nomlcally. general manager for Pegasus, mid
Plans call for the ore to be piled that once gold production stops,
on a 129-acre leach pad for the the company will rinse the ore
Caraehe Csayon mine, and. until it's no longer tainted with
another of 115 acres for Lukas cyanide. +°
Cenyoo, both on the southern edge Pegasus must apply for a New
of the Ortiz Mountains. The ore Mexico Environment Depsrtment .
will be piled [o a ma~nmum aelght Permit, which will include centio-
o[ 120 feet oa the plastic end clay, gency provisions for pumping any
pads, polluted water that may leak from
J.R Phillips, .Pegasus' environ-, below the pads and applying it
mental manager for the Ortia back to the ore. '
project, said Pegasus plans to run The Gold Fields Operating
the cyanide solutbn through the' ~ Corp., which recently ~ sold ite
ore by means o[ a drip irrigation, operation on the Ortiz Montains to
and sprinkler system. Pegasus, tookmillionsofouncesot
gold from the northern edge of Ute
mountains.
Gold Fields left behind a huge
pile of waste rock visible ftvm
Santa Fe and a legacy of
groundwater pollution.
When Gold fields went wrong,
Phillips said, Is that after Fluslung
the highly poisonous cyac,ide
through the ore on a lined pad,
workers rinsed the ore and moved
it away -dropping it directly on
the ground.
[fain water continues to Flow
through the Gold Fields ore pile,
and the result is cyanide and other
pollution in groundwater.
Jeanie Cragin o[ the Concerned
Citizens of Cerrillos Group, which
opposes Pegasus's mining plans,
said she and others don't believe
Pegasus can operete its Ortiz pro-
ject without "at least running the
risk of contamination similar rn
what happened et Gold fields."
What will happen evenmaUy to
the thousands of tons of cyanide
that Pegasus proposes.to use?
Some o[ it gets tied up is the
metal complexes of the ore, and
becomes immobile there, Phillips
said. Some of it is lost to gas, and
some breaks down to hydrogen
..t. t t
© sa,ta
14
errillos
Madrid
25
cad.n x ~~

' Proposed
;
querque Mining Area
fAllOl ~ERRIOER / JOURW 1L
and nitrogen.
At the end of the mine's IiCe -
now scheduled for 10 years -the
company will consider detoxifica-
tion of any leftover cyanide solu-
tion. That includes the possibility
o[ spraying it directly on the
ground so sunlight can break it
down, accerding to a plan the
company has submitted to Santa
Fe County.
Before Pegasus can proceed
with its mining plans, it must get
permission from the state En-
gineer's Office to pump water [or
its operations. Residents have pro-
tested the application and ahear-
ing is set to begin Maroh 17.
IF [be state grants the company's
water permit application, Pegasus
must get m operating permit from
Santa Fe County.
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