In 1870 miners struck gold in Summitville Colorado. Over the next 15 years hundreds of claim operations were in progress throughout the towns mines. Impeded by harsh weather conditions a heavy mine traffic the mine soon closed. Over the next hundred years the mine opened and closed several times yielding 257,600 troy between 1873 and 1959.

Summitville Consolidated Mining Company or SCMC used one of its subsidiaries, Galactic Resources Ltd., to purchase 1,230 acres of the mine in 1984. The company employed a new mining technique involving an open pit to retrieve gold from ore found in the mine. Prior to this new technology extracting gold from ore was very expensive and often cost more money than the gold would yield.

The new process was called heap leaching. During this pyritic ore is covered with sodium cyanide which causes the gold to begin to leach out of the ore. Once the initial step is complete the cyanide is removed and the gold is extracted with activated carbon. During its operations from 1984 to 1992, Galactic Resources Ltd., under the direction of the Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, used this process on about 10 million tons of ore. A large 73 acre pad called a heap leach pad was used to help contain the dangerous chemicals used during the extraction process.

During 1991 the mine was served with a cease and desist order. Damage to the heap leach pad and other equipment was causing run off to flow into near by streams. SCMC converted much of the equipment used during the initial phases of production to begin to detoxify the area. By 1992 Galactic Resources Ltd was bankrupt and the United States Environmental Protection Agency or EPA resumed clean up in 1994.

Most of the problems were caused because the mine company had established a flawed system for containing the contaminants. EPA reports showed that as much as 3,000 gallons of contaminated water were flowing from the site every 60 seconds. This run off is said to have been the cause of death of fish found in many of the reservoirs along the Alamosa River in 1990. Scientists believe these fish deaths were an isolated event. They reported that while cyanide did leak into the watershed it quickly evaporated and had only minor effects on downstream fish and aquatic life.

It is hard to estimate the exact cost of the damages caused by this irresponsible waste leak, but the cost for clean up at the site its self was a staggering 155 million dollars. The chairman, Robert Friedland, of the company responsible for the contamination was forced to pay about 30 million dollars toward the costs.

While the current mine operators were responsible for contaminating the water with their new practices the problem was worsened by the areas history of mining and naturally acidic rock and metals. The previous hundred years of mining exposed some of the metals and acidic rock to surface weathering and run off. When the water leaking from the contamination pad ran over these exposed surfaces it increased the water’s acidity level even more.

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Click the link to learn more about our On Site Pollution Coverage and product range here http://www.b-h-a.com/cpl and go to http://www.b-h-a.com to visit the Beacon Hill Associate\’s website.

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Category: Business
Keywords: Environment, Business, Industry, Insurance, Gold