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i ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ <br />' 4 WEEKEND. JUNE 2&29. 1094 ~ COLORADO DAILY 999 <br />STbTE <br />State back;s keeping <br /> <br />leaching mine open <br />By CHR19 WOLF method, would 6e ir,:nmaieal. During the last gold rash, <br />tarsram o+6 stag wu> mines dug Into mouDmiosides where They Thought they <br />A sbteofthe-W gold mine in xuthem Colorado got might find gold. When they did, They crtied out Dearly <br />epprorel Wednesday to mndnue ib cywide iexhing open- pore Daggers. GcttiDg to Nox veu:- maser exlnmiDg huge <br />anion, despite exceeding ib permitted level of eceumulat• , emaunb of ore, which likely mnbincd mlDUte qu: .-, <br />ed ryanide by 4,600 per¢nl. of gold, too. <br />The mine, whith is near the town •~f San Luis, is open- That's the gold the cyanide Icaching technoin~ <br />sled by the Battle Maunbin Gold Co. There's no evidence ma4es ac¢ssible. lh< portals can extnm gall in animals <br />chat ryanide has leaked [mm the halc:ng ponds where the az low as 0.008 part per mil0on, Pendleton said. "It's <br />excessive levels were daeaed, but mine opponwts say it eRegively non<aisteDt " <br />should be shut down, because it doesn't wort Peadletm said between the declining pri¢ of gold and <br />"It's a disaster wailing to happen; said Roger Flynn, the huge meta in espial investmrnt, and ocasiona0y in <br />an anomey wish Boulder's Land end Water Fund o[ the federal and stale fetes, cyanide Icaching may prove ro he <br />Rackia. Flynn is reprexnting one of three San Wu par- disappoiDliog to some who saw it at a hone 10 years age, <br />lies who oppose the minds ibrerim permit. <br />Although the mint opentota aDd the State Mined Irrrd when gol'fMi`•'st ,about SS00 m ouo¢. Toda 1, it's nhnnl <br />~ 3240 ~ "y V <br />Reclamation Board agree than the technology u planned Flynn said the West is in the midst of a Dew geld rush <br />has Gr7eQ They say it's important to keep We mine open- There arc 2] rywide leaching gold mines in Colorcdo. <br />aging while it climbs beck into mmplierxe. The worst accident associated with a cyanide leaching <br />According to lira Pendleton teehnital and scientific openrton, Flym said, happened al the Sumniirvi0e Mine <br />' <br />eoordimtm far the Stale Mined Land Redameuon iD Colorado <br />s Sw luaD Atountaim, when s holding pond <br />Division, to shut dowD the 1&moorhold mine would be leaked wd destroyed about 15 miles o[ the Alamosa River. <br />costly, and even counrerproduttive, to clewup goals. At the Bartle Mombin mine site there an: 1.5 million <br />"If you shut down the system, everything become sbg- tool of milled bilings lining in Icaching ponds. Beouse <br />ever. 11 slops tirmlating; Pendlam said. "And those WI- Ue fu0y operating mine produces about 5,00[1 tons more <br />ings - char ere ell Slimy mud -will sbrt to consolidate." each day, Pendletm said shutting down the mine would <br />On¢ Thal happens, he said, it's border to cbemitally Dm have prevented a significant additional am wet of min- <br />rcmove the ryanide. Additiomlly, PendlrAOn said, the mine 1°g• mil0ng end ryanide leaching [mm taking place. <br />" <br />' <br />employe 110 peopk, which means 110 families, wd "in t wwt <br />"Five thousand tons is a Ira, <br />he said, "1 w auidn <br />case something happens," 110 people m help aver disss- it in my living room. But compered ro one-arol-a-half mil- <br />' <br />" <br />ler GoD tom, it <br />s a sme0 pile more. <br />PwdlctoD said the scrip <br />Cyanide leecitin~is ^ process by which small quwti- of mmDlim¢ benrJmsrka imposed by Wednesday's ml- ~ <br />tie o[ gold tan be extmmed from me 1haL by my ether tog shoud gu the mine in mmpliavice by Oc~. 15. <br />In 1990, We mina: waz issued ^ permit by the Sbte <br /> Mined Land ReclematioD Board limiting ib tr•W accumu- <br /> lated rywide levels in the holding pond to a.4 poor per <br /> -mIDioa Ice May ihrbtwo-fihcd Basle MwdteiD iiiu,uw <br /> beaux ryanide levels had rcarLed 7311 ppd. Since We <br /> May 5Dq ryeside IereLs have hew brobght dcwn b abom <br /> g0 ppm <br />__ _.,__ _. _._..__.._-~sss`7raddiHDn Do•i6e 8De, BaNe Mwotain Gold Vice <br /> Prgidem Andre Douchme said his mmpwy speDl about <br /> trove m rAOa cal <br />WEEIO=ND, JUNE 2&29, 1992 <br />_ ST, <br />...sty :~ allows mine to stay open <br />IrrKar iAO[ 9 <br />5200.000 iD initial apiW investment and nave will spend <br />about 31.6 million more to replete iL "We 6aught a tech- <br />Dolagy, wd it didn't work" Douehwe xid. "Rut the Dew <br />teehDOlogy has b¢a proven to work in J4 sites around the <br />world." <br />H the levels don't rexh 50 ppm by Thursday, 33 ppm <br />by logy 22, and 1.4 ppm by Ocmber 13, Pendleton said, <br />"We're going to rum it oH." <br />"We're doing this jmt az quirJcly az we coq" said <br />Douchme. <br />But Flym, who repraenb Sw Luis ruidwb who 0ve <br />dowosueam of eke mine, and who he said are eared, asked, <br />"What's a pemil fool" While the state farad Bartle <br />COLARADO DAILY <br />ATE <br />Momuin out of camplian¢ io May, Flym said his clieou <br />thiDlc the mine has bew nonaumpliwt "sine: day me." <br />"Il waz a major disappoiDmlent to the citizens' groups <br />who arc is danger from the rymidr," he said. "ILese peo- <br />pie have bew told, 'Trust us; bust our teetaology,' but <br />they've already vested, and they lost" <br />Flym said a diBereD[ coining company operating on the <br />same sire po0uted total gromdwater with e•anide in the <br />1970s. "And it mold be too late," Flym said, referting ro <br />the Wednesday mODg's provisim that gnome water mon- <br />ilming systems immed'utely be upgraded. <br />"These arc fear of people who are star ~," he xid. <br />"We eked the board to protee[ the cilium from this threat <br />and it just wssD't done." <br />