**TER BALANCE AND WATER TREATMENT

  ater Balance - The overall water balance for the proposed facilities is
shown in Figure 1-10. This
  igre shows the major and minor flows for estimated average conditions during
the massive ore
hase. These flows would remain the same or decrease slightly during the stringer
ore phase. The
predicted flow to Swamp Creek, however, would remain the same throughout
the project, except for
potential diversions for mitigation purposes. If the flows within the project
water circuit were
greater than expected, the excess water could be discharged to Swamp Creek.
The greater than
8nticipated flows could be caused by factors such as high mine inflows or
an accumulation of
precipitation in the reclaim ponds/MWDF. An important function of the reclaim
ponds in the overall
water balance for the project would be to provide excess water storage capacity.
For example, this
Storage capacity would be used if operating problems at the water treatment
plant prevent the
discharge of water to Swamp Creek or if mine inflows were greater than expected.

Water Treatment - The water treatment plant would have three separate systems
as shown in Figure
.1-11. Each treatment system would adjust the pH of incoming water, precipitate
dissolved metals,
and remove suspended solids. These treatment systems should be operational
16 months after
construction begins. There will be interconnections between the three systems
to increase the
flexibility of the treatment options and provide backup in case one of the
systems were shut down. A
computer system would control treatment plant operations such as monitoring
reagent feed rates and
the recycling of low quality effluent. Full time operators would be responsible
for monitoring the
computer system, collecting water samples, and performing preventive maintenance.

Two systems would be used to treat mine water. One system would treat intercepted
groundwater if
the WPDES permit standards were not met. Otherwise, intercepted groundwater
would be pumped to
a surge tank, monitored, and released to the water discharge lagoons or used
for mitigation purposes.
The second mine water treatment system would treat about 80% of the contaminated
mine water for
discharge to Swamp Creek. Table 1-7 presents the predicted chemical composition
of the
intercepted groundwater and contaminated mine water.

                                           Table 1-7
         Projected Water Quality of Intercepted Groundwater and Contaminated
Mine Water

Constituent1                    Intercepted Groundwater2          Contaminated
Mine Water3

Cations
    Silver (Ag)                           <0.001                     
   0.01
    Aluminum (Al)                         <0.53                      
   0.75
    Barium (Ba)                           <0.02                      
   0.019
    Calcium (Ca)                          29.8                         120.0
    Cadmium (Cd)                          < 0.002                    
   0.061
    Chromium (Cr (Total))                 <0.002                     
   0.56
    Copper (Cu)                           <0.007                     
   0.25
    Iron (Fe) (Total)                     <1.74         Fe 2+        
   1.5
                                                        Fe 3+           
0.03
    Mercury (Hg)                          <0.0001                    
   0.0004
    Potassium (K)                                                       
3.7
    Magnesium (Mg)                        12.0                          17.0
    Manganese (Mn)                        <0.423                     
   0.37
    Sodium (Na)                                                         48.0
    Lead (Pb)                             <0.01                      
   0.30
    Selenium (Se)                         <0.001                     
   0.11
    Zinc (Zn)                             <0.052                     
  18.0



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