Full Schedule
Short Course: Sunday, April 29, 2012
Mining & Milling Methods
Instructor: Larry Erickson, Troy Mine; Brent LaMoure, Stillwater Mining Co.; Mark Thompson, Barrick-Golden Sunlight Mine; and Jeff Errett, Imerys Yellowstone Mine
This full-day course will offer a view from several different perspectives. Representatives from Stillwater Mining Company, Troy Mine, Inc., Barrick-Golden Sunlight Mine, and the Yellowstone Mine will be on hand to educate attendees on the various different techniques that each use in mining and milling their products.
Time: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Cost: $120 (Lunch will be provided.)
Tour: Monday, April 30, 2012
Reclamation at Streamside Tailings and Opportunity Ponds Waste Management Area
Tour Guide: Joel Chavez, Montana DEQ & Charlie Coleman, US EPA
Time: 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Cost: $120 (Sack lunch will be provided.)
The tour will feature an overview of the five square miles of Opportunity Ponds Waste Management Area. The site was originally constructed by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company to impound metal rich tailings from the ore beneficiation process at the Anaconda smelter. The site is currently owned by the Atlantic Richfield Company and is being reclaimed by Atlantic Richfield contractors as part of the Superfund process. Reclamation of the site has been underway for over ten years. Participants will see various vegetative caps, constructed wetlands as well as ground and surface water management designs in operation.
The tour will also visit the Streamside Tailings Reclamation site which encompasses Silver Bow Creek extending from Butte to the Warm Springs Ponds. The stream and floodplain were heavily contaminated by metal rich tailings and slag deposited in a 1908 flood event which breached several impoundment structures in Butte. The site is being reclaimed by the State of Montana as part of a cash out settlement with the Atlantic Richfield Company under Superfund. The project is in its fourteenth year of reclamation, which includes the complete reconstruction of the stream channel. Participants will travel from unreclaimed areas up stream to areas reclaimed at the start of the project. A variety of stream designs and floodplain reclamation techniques will be viewed as well as on-going construction.
General Session: Tuesday, May 1, 2012
7:00 am Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:15 am Welcome & Opening Remarks: Warren McCullough, Montana DEQ
Geotechnical Session
8:30 am Coal Ash Disposal and New Regulations
Gordon Criswell, PPL Montana
9:00 am High Volume Mechanically Induced Water Evaporation Methods
Robert Ballantyne, Wilderness Ridge Water Solutions
9:30 am Using Spreadsheets to Evaluate the Effects of Mine Water Disposal on
Surface and Ground Water
Lisa M. Boettcher C.P.G., Montana DEQ
10:00 am BREAK
Exploration/Design Session
10:30 am Copperwood Project, Michigan
Bill Williams & Jim Jacques, Orvana Minerals Corp.
11:00 am Tintina Resources Inc. High-grade Copper Deposit Update, Montana
Bob Jacko, Tintina Gold Resources
11:30 am Explorations/Operations at Stillwater Mine, Montana
Brent Lamoure, Stillwater Mining Co.
Noon LUNCH (provided to all conference attendees)
1:00 pm The Hermosa Project (Arizona) – Challenges & Solutions, from Exploration to Design
Chris Jones, Wildcat Silver
1:30 pm Exploration, Permitting and Mine Design at Golden Vertex's Moss Project, NW Arizona
Joe Bardswich, Northern Vertex
Bat Session
2:00 pm Bat AcousticsBryce Maxell, Montana Natural Heritage Program
2:30 pm BREAK
3:00 pm White Nose Syndrome: An Emerging Pathogen Impacting Bats that Hibernate in
Abandoned Mines
Kris DuBois, Fish, Wildlife & Parks
Geotechnical Session
3:30 pm Dams without Filters and Responding to Seepage Incidents
Michael Gobla, PE, Bureau of Reclamation
4:00 pm Environmental Geochemistry of Revett Cu-Ag Deposits, N.W. Montana
Lisa Bithell Kirk, PG, Enviromin, Inc.
5:00 pm Social hosted by Tetra Tech
General Session: Wednesday, May 2, 2012
7:30 am Registration & Continental Breakfast
Mine Update Session
8:30 am Twenty-First Century Exploration at the Troy Mine, Northwest MontanaDerek Feeback, Troy Mine, Inc.
9:00 am Barrick Golden Sunlight Mine – Current and Future Operation
Seth Slatter, Barrick-Golden Sunlight Mine
9:30 am RX Gold & Silver, Inc.
Matt Jaynes, Drumlummon Gold Corp.
10:00 am BREAK
10:30 am Montana Tunnels Redevelopment: Part II
John Schaefer, Montana Tunnels
Reclamation/Restoration Session
11:00 am Important Improvements in Groundwater Quality & Quantity Resulting from HydraulicAdit Plug Closure Method, Glengarry Mine, New World District, Montana
Allan Kirk, Tetra Tech
11:30 am CERCLA Removal Action at the Rainy Mine, Washington
Bob Lambeth, Millennium Science & Engineering, Inc.
Noon LUNCH (provided to all conference attendees)
1:00 pm The Block P Mill Site (Montana) Restoration: A Final Look
Gant Massey, Ecological Solutions Group
1:30 pm Azurite Mine (Washington) CERCLA Removal Action: 2011 Construction Overview
Dustin Wasley, Cascade Earth Sciences
2:00 pm Fitness More than Diversity Guides Vegetation Recovery
Rich Prodgers, Bighorn Environmental
2:30 pm BREAK
3:00 pm Maiden Rock Update: SAFE and Succesful Reclamation
Joan Gabelman, BLM
Dennis Dunham, Cellular Concrete Solutions LLC
Rules & Regulations Session
4:00 pm Benefits to the Mining Industry from Independent Certifications
Marty Stearns, Barrick & Mark Thompson, Barrick-Golden Sunlight Mine
4:30 pm Legal Authorities for Abandoned Mine Reclamation by a Certified State under the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation Act: The Montana Program
Tom Root, Montana DEQ
5:00 pm Social hosted by Pioneer Technical Services
General Session: Thursday, May 3, 2012
7:30 am Registration & Continental Breakfast
Climate Change/Extraordinary Events Session
8:30 am Climate Change – Extreme Conditions: Do Plans of Operations Need to Include an Ark?
Dave Williams, BLM
9:00 am Zortman: Dealing with Extreme Weather Events
Warren McCullough, MT DEQ; Wayne Jepson, MT DEQ; & Bill Maehl, Spectrum Engineering
9:30 am The Path of the Ice Age Floods: America’s First National Geologic Trail
Jim Shelden, Ice Age Floods Institute
10:00 am BREAK
10:30 am Operating the Bunker Hill Central Treatment Plant under Challenging Conditions, Idaho
Mark Reinsel, PhD, PE, Apex Engineering
Interesting Topics Session
11:00 am Once Upon a Time in the West: The History & Legacy of a Western Coal Mining Center,
Sand Coulee, Montana
John Koerth, Montana DEQ
11:30 am Using Stable Isotopes of Sulfer to Track Contamination of the Madison Aquifer from Coal-
mine Drainage in the Stockett-Sand Coulee Area, Montana
Chris Gammons, PhD, Montana Tech
Noon Implementing Cradle to Grave GIS Support for Mining Operations
Andrew Gordon, CDM Smith, Inc.
12:30 pm LUNCH (provided to all conference attendees)
End of Conference!
