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<br />involved upgrading and maintenance of the complex water control and treatment system and <br />• closure and reclamation activities. Presently, Climax employs 25-50 people at the site. <br />The proposed Amendment to the Permit described herein is considered minor in nature. The <br />Amendment proposes to increase the area of "Affected Land" from the presently permitted 3467 <br />acres to 4521 acres; an increase of 1054 acres. The rationale for this increase is described in <br />Section 2.1. <br />2.0 THE AMENDMENT <br />Within the Climax property boundary, 3475 acres presently are included in the Permit as affected <br />land. This Amendment proposes to add an additional ?? surface acres to this total. The legal <br />description for the additional acreage is in Exhibit A. Exhibit B is a generalized regional map of <br />the Climax Mine. The detailed GIS map (scale: 1"= 1000') of the proposed additional acreage is <br />in Exhibit C. As discussed in Section 2.1, only a very small portion of this new proposed <br />acreage will ever be disturbed. <br />2.1 Purpose for Increase in Affected Land <br />The rationale for increasing the proposed acreage to the Permit is simply to allow for an <br />• operational buffer around various site facilities A complete understanding of this rationale <br />requires an understanding of recent history at Climax. <br />When the original Permit was issued in 1977, the outlook for the molybdenum market was <br />bullish. Numerous short and longer term plans for production increases were in the picture and <br />CMC and AMAX Inc. (now Cyprus Amax Minerals Company) were exploring seriously for <br />additional molybdenite deposits in North America. Consequently, Climax took the broad view of <br />the reclamation financial warranty (bond) required under the Act. Rather than bonding only <br />those areas specifically affected (as per the regulatory definition) by the site operations, Climax <br />elected to bond the entire 12,000 acres under its ownership at that time; the majority of which <br />would never be disturbed. The resulting financial warranty was approximately $25,000,000. <br />The annual cost to Climax at that time for this bond exceeded $250,000. <br />When the world molybdenum market collapsed in 1982, a depression that continued unabated <br />into the late 1980s, Climax scrapped its previous production and expansion plans and began <br />seeking any and all ways to curtail operating, maintenance, and personnel expenses. Thus, the <br />4 <br />•