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<br />COA1 Inc. Discussion Notes <br />Prep. Date: 93/2/8 <br />Rev. Date: 93/2/14 <br />First meeting, 92/12/19 <br /> <br />NEARTERM GOALS of these meetings: Identity community <br />questions/answers relating to ongoing and proposed mill activity; develop <br />a comprehensive plan fiir developing community understanding of and <br />input to mill-related environmental impacte, and a defined channel for <br />inputting community concerns on these issues early in the COM Inc. <br />planning cycle; create and make available an appropriate information <br />pamphlet describing ongoing and proposed mill activities and planning. <br />CHANGES presently under amsideration include: An increase in mill <br />throughput from 2tons-per-hour (TPH) to 20 TPH; inslallxtion of a <br />tailings pond approximately 500 feet X 300 feet X 70 feet at a location to <br />he determined near the mill. <br />SOME BACKGROUND: COM Inc. has identified approximately 1.2 <br />million tons of prucessahle dumps within a 1-mile radius of the mill. <br />Most of these consist of intermixed low-grade ores and trash rock which <br />COM Inc. has identified as being of a recoverable average grade using <br />proposed mill processing equipment and technology. At the present <br />throughput, this represents 62 years' reserves. However, accordig to <br />Wayne Tatman, only roughly one third of the material economically can <br />he processed through the mill, assuming a 2 TPH Flow (i.e. at the present <br />rate). The remaining material would have to he separated from the dumps <br />and redeposited in place, causing additional noise, dust and leaching <br />problems not present if all material is removed, <br />The present piles consist of crushed acidic, metal-bearing rock, subject to <br />rainfall-induced leaching into surface soils and the underlying goundwater <br />regimes. The leached materials are available for plant uptake and <br />consequent introduction into the Iexal food chain. To the extent that <br />leachate migration plumes encounter domestic water feed channels, they <br />constitute a continuing, low-grade hazard to humans, especially the young. <br />Further, these piles are acidic enough to prevent natural revegetation (and, <br />probably, reclamation also), thus ensuring cvntinuing surface exposure to <br />active erosion, windblown dust, etc. <br />Since these conditions are quite common at many mine and millsites in <br />Colorado and elsewhere, the development and demonstration of a <br />