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SEP 02 ' 97 01 ~ 17PM MRIL ~ ES ETC 1905 303 494 5151 p, 2 . . III ~f~~llllll~lllll M1 v uie~ r.1....RPRISES P.O. Box 1523 Longmont, Colorado 80502 (303) 651-2985 Mr. Carl Mount September 2, 1997 Division of Minerals and Geology 1313 Sherman Street, Room 215 Denver, Colorado 80203 Deaz Mr. Mount, The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the Hazel A mine alit was closed with a concrete and cinder block bulkhead on Saturday, August 30, 1997, by a crew of workers under the direct supervision of David Tipton. As you and your staff are aware, the Hazel A mine workings are the only water reservoir available for decanting excess water from the Gold Hill Mill's tailings pond. The Hazel A mine is supposed to be maintained and monitored so that the mine workings aze kept in a state of readiness to receive any sudden storm water that would otherwise overflow the pond's tailings retention dam. Without the Hazel A decant and water storage system in working order, the Gold Hill Mill's tailings pond is in serious jeopard of overflowing its '' tailings retention dam. In the likely event that this occurs, thousands ofytons of mill tailtngs and hundreds of thousands of gallons of waste water would be deposited in the Cash Gulch drainage, which empties into Gold Run and Four Mile Creek. All of the property located immediately below the Gold Hill Mill belongs to Mi Vida Enterprises. Mi Vida Enterprises also owns the Hazel A mine adit. Although Mi Vida Enterprises granted Colina Oro Molina, Inc. the right to enter onto Mi Vida Enterprises' property for the purpose of conducting milling operations under a Milling Contract dated February 1991, it did not authorize COM, Ina or its successors in interest to render unusable the valuable Hazel A mine workings. The Gold Hill Mill permit is still held in the name of COM, Inc., but I believe that title to the mill property passed to the Pranklin Consolidated Mining Company on July 3, 1996, in a transaction that supposedly cost Franklin $2,500,000. I have personally informed Curtis Bernhardt, Earl Madsen, John Miner and David Tipton on numerous, separate occasions that Mi Vida Enterprises would not grant COM, Inc. or its successor, Franklin Consolidated, the right to plug and abandon the Hazel A mtne workings. I know that Allen Sorenson and Gary Curtis are both aware of Mi Vida Enterprises' firm position in regard to this matter. I am making an urgent request that the Division of Minerals and Geology immediately enter onto Mi Vida Enterpnses' property for the purpose of ascertaining the current status of the Hazel A bulkhead and the ability of the operators of the Gold Hill Mill to monitor and maintain the Hazel A mine as an emergency excess water storage reservoir for the mill's tailings pond. Please contact me as soon as possible to arrange for an inspection of the hazel A mine adit. 1 Very truly yours, ~'hoa~ ,.~c~ yb~, Mazk A. Steen Fot: Mi Vida Enterprise