1987-03-03_REPORT - M1977493 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1111111111111111111 ReclamationUl'99i at max Urad and Henderson Mines by LARRY F. BROWN Environmental Control Engineer, Urad and Henderson Mines, Climax Molybdenum Co The three Amax Inc. molybdenum mines in Colorado have had active reclamation programs for years. The company began tailings revegetation research in 1965 at the Climax mine near Leadville. The research is extreme- ly important because all three mines are at timberline along the Continental Divide. Mine elevations range from 10.300 to 11,300 ft above sea level. These altitudes result in severe winters and very short growing seasons.The av- " erage annual temperature is slightly below freezing. The growing season, as depicted by consecutive frost-free days, can be expected to last only six to eight weeks. Seed of grass species native to these elevations is not y commercially available. Therefore, much of the compa- ny's research has been directed toward determining which commercially available seed species are adaptable to these extreme conditions. The oldest high-altitude- species adaptation plots in Colorado are at the Climax Tailings revegetation research at the Climax mine. Severe mine. winters and a growing season gf',six to eight weeks contribute Reclamation at each mine must be approached differ- to the difficulties cf'reclarnation at the high altitude of Anuax's ently. Each mine has a unique history and a different sta- three Colorado mohbdenum mines tus with respect to future production and environmental planning. dollar fresh-water interceptor canal around the new May- flower tailings deposition area. Other sizeable reclama- tion projects completed have been the removal and recla- Reclamation at Climax is difficult mation of the Climax town site and ski area. Reclamation at the Climax mine is difficult for many reasons. The mine is located in an area extensively dis- turbed during the gold and silver-boom days of 110 years ago. That alone means reclamation at Climax is a tremen- dous catching-up process. The Climax mine began molybdenum production in 1917. It has since milled about 330 million tons of ore. Milling that amoung of ore has resulted in about 1,500 acres of tailings, most of which are still being used for tail- ings deposition. The Climax mine has about 35 to 40 years of proven and probable reserves. The mine ex- panded to an open-pit operation in 1973. Overburden from the open-pit project is being used to Larre F. Brown has been with Climax reclaim the old area no longer used for tailings deposition Molybdenum Co. as an environmental and to stabilize all tailings dam faces. Revegetation of the control engineer at the Urad and Hendcr- overburden and rerouting of the state highway over the son mines for the past two rears. Brown old tailings area will complete that part of the reclamation spent two rears as a Peace Corps Volun- program. teer in India and also taught junior and high school science for four years. In Another project in progress is establishing vegetation 1974, he earned a PhD in range (plant) 5C I on extremely steep cut-and-fill slopes of a multimillion ecology from Colorado State University. 1+ , Reprinted from April 1976 MINING CONGRESS JOURNAL