Iron Mountain was placed on the EPA Superfund in 1983. The previous owners of the mine settled a lawsuit to recover the costs of treatment of the Acid Mine Drainage in 2000. Under current conditions the Acid Mine Drainage may continue for 3 to 5 Thousand years. Left unrecovered the resulting sludge will by then exceed one hundred fifty million tons, enough sludge to build 5 Great Pyramid of Giza .
"First Mining in 46 Years!"
Iron Mountain Mine has proven reserves of almost 15 million tons of massive sulfide ore.
(The High Density Sludge Treatment Plant at Iron Mountain Mine Superfund Site)
The proposed ROD 6 submitted 6-02-2008
AMD&CSI and IMMI have submitted a proposal for a final remedial action plan to the EPA Superfund Site at Iron Mountain Mines. The proposal incorporates the initial analysis of ROD 1, which describes 12 alternatives for remedial actions at IMM. Of the 12 proposed remedies, only CA-10, which involved removal of the ore, was found to be fully protective of human health and the environment, and permanently eliminated the source of the pollution. The IMM proposal, CA-1, was the insitu mining proposal prepared by Davey McKee corp. This proposal was found to be reliable and offered the potential to eliminate the source of the pollution, but was ruled out as too experimental, with too many unresolved concerns such as the mountains hydrology and the impact on the aquifer, and uncertainties about some of the products marketability.
The proposed bioremediation to mitigate the sludge and recover the metals and materials includes the production of specialty cement products suitable for precast concrete.
We are proposing to utilize the sludge and this building technology to build an entire house out of reclaimed “acutely toxic hazardous waste” as the sludge is currently classified.
More information is available on the building technology website; www.artmodular.com .
Cautionary Disclosure: This is "forward-looking information about prospective results of operations, financial position or cash flows that is based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action and that is not presented in the format of a historical balance sheet, income statement or cash flow statement ." Examples of financial outlooks include expected revenues, net income, earnings per share and R&D spending. Material facts have not been verified. Actual results may vary. These results are highly speculative. Readers should establish their own reasonable basis for these assumptions. Use Caution!
IRON MOUNTAIN MINE
DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED
PILOT PLANS AND FUTURE MINING PLAN
The concept of conducting insitu mining at the Iron Mountain Mine site is proposed to
occur over three separate phases. Each phase builds on the information gained from the
prior phase. The first two phases are two distinct pilot plans including a demonstration
plant with bioremediation technology to remove metals from the acidic mine
drainage (AMD); and small scale testing of alternative insitu-mining methods to determine
the ideal process. After the two Pilot Plans are in place and determined to be effective
Phase Three will commence with the preparation of a Mining Plan for insitu mining over
the entire project area.
PHASE ONE -:
Prepare a Pilot Plan for a pilot pretreatment facility to remove dissolved and suspended
minerals and metals from the acidic mine drainage (AMD) using bioremdiation.
The pretreatment facility will capture the AMD as it is piped
from the mountain to the EPA water treatment plant. The facility will be located at and below the
former Slickrock Creek Copper Cementation Plant”. The facility will be expandable to process
additional AMD in the future. The EPA water treatment plant will continue to function as
final treatment and storm water treatment.
The objective of the Phase One-Pilot Plan is to demonstrate the viability and feasibility of
removing metals and minerals with bioremediation. A team of experts will work with the EPA
to gain approval for implementation of the pilot plant.
PHASE TWO:
When Phase One is completed and fully tested the Phase Two-Pilot Plan to test insitu
mining will be prepared and implemented. Alternative insitu mining methods will be tested
on a small scale until an idealized process is determined. The alternative mining methods
will be based on prior tests to evaluate the temperature, pressure, and acidity of the ore;
various possible solvent or surfactants that maybe injected into the ore bodies; and
whether and how much additional fracturing might be helpful to determine
the ideal parameters for injecting the ore bodies. The pretreatment facility, described in
Phase One, will be expanded to process additional AMD as the need arises. The EPA
plant will continue to function as final treatment and storm water treatment.
The location of the initial test site for injecting AMD into the mountain will be determined
using the following criteria:
a) It should be directly above an existing tunnel;
b) It should be as near as possible to the mine entrance;
c) It will have a reasonably thick portion of ore body;
2
d) It can be drilled to within 15 or 20 feet of the tunnel roof
After a test site is selected controlled injections will proceed to determine porosities and
rate of dissolution of ore. Due to the variable conditions of temperature, pressure, and
acidity of the ore several test sites maybe needed and different solvents or surfactants
used before the preferred mining method is determined. At this time, it is not anticipated
that the ore body will be detonated to shatter the ore and accelerate the process because
the Plan’s objective is to find an idealized insitu mining method through limited testing
which can be gradually scaled up in the Third Phase described below.
The objective of the Phase Two-Pilot Plan is to identify an idealized insitu mining method
by testing alternative methods on a small scale.
PHASE THREE - PREPARATION OF A MINING PLAN.
Once Phase One and Two- Pilot Plans have established the effectiveness of the bioremediation
technology and identified an idealized insitu mining method, a mining plan for full
scale insitu mining of the site will be prepared and sent to the Department of Conservation
and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This Mining Plan will comply with the
requirements of Shasta County’s SMARA Ordinance, and the State of California’s Surface
Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) and the regulatory requirements of other State
agencies (i.e Water Board, Department of toxic substance control, Air Quality Board, Calif. Dept of Fish and Game, etc.)
Artesian Mineral Development & Consolidated Sludge, Inc.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TO OPERATING AGREEMENT
This executive summary is prepared according to the provisions of the preliminary joint venture operating agreement and amendments of the HU/MOUNTAIN joint venture between T.W. Arman and John Hutchens, for the operation, administration, and maintenance of the Iron Mountain Mine site on behalf of Iron Mountain Mines, Inc. (who is the sole owner of Iron Mountain Mines and the mineral resources since 1976). The HU/MOUNTAIN joint venture has assigned primary contractor responsibilities for this project to Artesian Mineral Development & Consolidated Sludge, Inc. (AMD&CSI).
AMD&CSI has submitted a proposal for a final remedial action plan to the EPA Site at Iron Mountain Mines. The proposal incorporates the initial analysis of ROD 1, which describes 12 alternatives for remedial actions at IMM. Of the 12 proposed remedies, only CA-10, which involved removal of the ore, was found to be fully protective of human health and the environment, and permanently eliminated the source of the pollution. The IMM proposal, CA-1, was the insitu mining proposal prepared by Davey McKee corp. This proposal was found to be reliable and offered the potential to eliminate the source of the pollution, but was ruled out as too experimental, with to many unresolved concerns such as the mountains hydrology and the impact on the aquifer, and uncertainties about some of the products marketability.
The AMD&CSI proposal merges CA-1 into CA-10. The proposal demonstrates that since ROD1, the EPA has installed monitoring wells around the ore bodies, and conducted hydrology tests that demonstrate that the mines effectively function as a natural drain of the mountain, and that no AMD penetrates to the aquifer below. The proposal further demonstrates that while the proposed mining method was highly experimental at the time of its proposal, it is now a widely accepted technology, variously referred to as bio-mining, solution
Fertilizers:
IMMI and AMD&CSI proposes to construct and operate a fertilizer production plant for engineered time release fertilizers. The major agricultural fertilizer will be formulated for rice production, incorporating a slow release IBDU (Isobutylene Di-urea) core for late stage growth with a mixed Urea, Ammonium sulfate, Ammonium thiosulfate, Melamine, Humic Acid shell. This fertilizer will be available in assorted macro-nutrient ratios with varying amounts of potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and additional sulfur, along with a full compliment of trace elements that are recognized micro-nutrients. (The majority of the presently available fertilizers are made at natural gas or naphtha refineries in Texas . IGCC coal gasification with LURGI ammonia synthesis is a disruptive technology that makes ammonia.
Using the results of assays and information developed during drilling, drifting and mining of the various segments of the Iron Mountain ore body, geological ore reserves were developed for both the massive sulfide and disseminated ores by Mountain Copper Company. Reserves of the gossan ore were developed through the cooperation between engineers of Mountain Copper Company and Stauffer Chemical Company. Subsequent checks of these reserve figures have been made by Southwestern Engineering Company and Iron Mountain Mines, Inc. In addition, various Mountain Copper Company internal checks are evident. The result of the calculations and checks is the general agreement that there presently exists at Iron Mountain Mine roughly 12,000,000 tons of proven sulfide ore with minimum average grades of 1% copper, 2% zinc, 0.02 gold and 1.5 oz. silver. Probable gossan ore is estimated at 3,000,000 tons. The combined proven geological reserves amount to 15,050,000 tons of proven sulfide and gossan ore contained within an area of roughly 300 acres. These reserves represent tonnages presently remaining in the Hornet, Mattil, Richmond Extension and the unmined Brick Flat ore bodies. No recent reserve figures have been developed for the three magnetite bodies. Remaining in place tonnages for the Old Mine, Number 8, Confidence-Complex, Camden , busy Bee, Lone Star and Okosh massive sulfide bodies are listed in various data and reports received from Iron Mountain Mines. However, no reserve calculations for these deposits are available as backup. Limited backup assay data are available for the Camden and Okosh bodies. According to this information average copper grades for the Camden and Okosh are 1.01 percent and 3.43 percent respectively. No overall averages are readily available for the Old Mine, Number 8 and Confidence-Complex but general extension of adjacent data indicates average grades may approach one percent.
Tons of proven sulfide ore in place: 14,183,000; probable reserves 1,050,000
Tons of proven gossan in place 3,050,000; probable reserves 3,795,000
Grand Total in place 17,233,000; probable reserves 4,845,000
During 1950 and 1951, a 1,798 exploration drill hole was put down by the U.S.G.S. in the vicinity of a syncline on the southeast side of the Iron Mountain mine. Located at the approximate mine coordinates 2900 north, 3650 east passed through numerous rhyolite intervals of Balaklala formation throughout its entire length. Intermittent, broad to narrow bands of disseminated sulfides were present throughout the drill hole with some intervals containing slightly greater than one percent copper. Kaiser Engineers, 1981