HELENA — The Department of Environmental Quality is seeking public comment to aid the development of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement to analyze the potential environmental impacts from a proposed tailings reprocessing project at the Golden Sunlight Mine. The Golden Sunlight Mine is located about five miles northeast of Whitehall in Jefferson County.
The project, an amendment to the current operating permit, would allow Golden Sunlight to excavate and reprocess tailings and extend the life of the mine by up to 12 years.
Golden Sunlight would excavate tailings in Tailing Storage Facility 1 using conventional methods, move the material to a re-pulping plant, pump the slurried tailings to the flotation plant in the mill, and reprocess the tailings to extract a gold and sulfide concentrate. Approximately 26 million tons of tailings would be reprocessed and the remaining product would be disposed in an onsite pit. After excavation, the tailings facility footprint would be reclaimed for land uses such as grazing, recreation and wildlife habitat. All proposed activities would occur within the existing permitted disturbance boundary and would not include any new disturbance areas.
