GENERAL46683

• Permit No: M1988112
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Name: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

May 1991
Issue No. 3
A newsletter for
friends and clients o/
Stef`en Robertson and Kirsten
San Luis Gold Project
The San Luis Gold Mine will
be one of Colorado's largest
producers when it comes on
line in early 1991. The mine is
located 4 miles northeast of
San Luis, Colorado in Costilla
County, and is owned by Battle
Mountain Gold Company.
Battle Mountain Gold retained
SRK for permitting and design for the 192-acre
facility. The mine will produce 12.2 million tons of
tailings over the seven to ten year life of the pro-
ject. The key SRK personnel involved aze
Jim Johnson, Rob Dorey and Ted Sluder.
Construction of the facilities began in August 1990.
SRK's Field Services Division was retained by
BMG far Conswction Management and Construc-
tion Quality Assurance services. Four separate sets
of contract bid documents wen; prepared for the
project components. These included third party
surveying; earthwork; synthetics; and mechanical.
During peak conswction, SRK's Field services
group had nine full-time inspectors on the job.
SRK in India
In April 1990, SRK was awarded a contract by the
United Nations Development Programme in New
York on behalf of the Central Mine Planning and
Design Institute Ltd. of Coal India. The ultimate
objective of the project. initiated in 1986, is to use
computer models to help with the ground water pro-
blems occurring in connection with mine de-
watering. Far example, a[ the Rajmahal Coal Mine
in northern Bihar state, the surrounding country is
fanned for rice, linseed, mustazd and wheat. The
region presently has a shallow water-table, with
artesian conditions in the deeper aquifers. Mine
dewatering may lower the regional ground water
levels which in ttun may affect the viability of
farming and the supply of domestic water from
local dugwells. Rajmahal opencast mine has an
planned projection of 10.5 million tonnes per
annum and the coal will be used for much-needed
thermal power production.
With an on-site Feld laboratory, all testing of con-
swction materials was performed on site.
Major components of the tailings facllity include:
• 120 acres of secondary lining (12-inch compacted
clayey silts) with a permeability of
1.0 x 10'6 cm/sec or less: SRK has used BAT'" in-
situ permeability test equil ment for fast, same-day
results.
• 5 million square feet of luimary synthetic liner
including 40-mil VLDPE for the impoundment's
primary liner and GO-mil HDPE for the double-lined
water reclaim pond.
• 130,000 linear feet of AI>S tailings drainage pipe
network consisting of 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-inch
diameter pipe.
Approximately 2.2 million cubic yards of earthen
materials were moved durbrg Phase I construction.
This material was selectively handled to obtain four
different types of fill for the facilities. Some of the
Phase I facilities became operational during March
1491 with the remainder scheduled for mid-stunmer.
The Phase II facilities aze :laced for construction
during 1993.
Dave Harpley and Adrian ('hander from SRK's
Vancouver office spent two weeks travelling over
5,000 km by air, rail and read to visit the two "test
case" coal mines. Working in India presents new
challenges to Notch American consultants. Air
temperatures typically excerd 40°C, making dehy-
dration aconstant concern. The threat of "delhi
belly" is never far away. Frequent power outages
guaranteed candlelight dinners, and are a significant
problem for existing and future dewatering systems.
After visiting the mines, SR K made recommenda-
tions on methods and the stream lining of data
collection and manipulation They also presented a
program for model application activities and project
completion. SRK has recently been retained to
perform the next phase, inv~)lving compilation of
the data already gathered by the Indians and imple-
mentation of PC-based hydrogeological models.
X71-11~ STEFFEN ROBERTSON & KIRSTEN