17 Yrs Into Gold Mine Cleanup, Co. Offers $6.5 Million To Treat Cadmium, Lead & Zinc In Animas River

[hatrack]

The largest gold producer ever in Silverton has offered $6.5 million toward cleaning up toxic waste leaking from one of its shuttered mines.

A letter from the Sunnyside Gold Corp. was received Tuesday by the stakeholders group that has been working on cleanup since 1994. The letter also was sent to the Bureau of Land Management, which is involved in reducing heavy-metal contamination at the site, and San Juan County commissioners.

Current interest focuses on Gladstone, now a ghost town, where four mines, including the American Tunnel operated by Sunnyside, are discharging about 800 gallons of contaminated water a minute into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River. Among the contaminants being leaked are cadmium, zinc, lead, manganese and copper.

Sunnyside is willing to contribute up to $6.5 million to improve water quality in the Animas, the letter signed by Sunnyside President Lauren Roberts said. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of international giant Kinross Gold Corp., would commit $25,000 to studies of water-management alternatives being done by the Animas River Stakeholders Group and $5 million for operational costs of treating toxic waste from the American Tunnel, a project of the BLM.

EDIT

http://durangoherald.com/article/20111006/NEWS01/710069924/-1/s

[hunter]

1. Toxic situation.

The local politics can make you ill.

For example, this little gem...

"COULD THE CURRENT CRISIS BE THE RESULT OF A SLOW AND CUNNING CHINESE ATTACK ON THE WEST THAT’S BEEN BRILLIANTLY EXECUTED?"

http://www.savethesanjuans.com