newsminer.com

JUNEAU, Alaska — Kensington Mine developers say they are not interested in taking part in mediated talks set up by a conservation group that sued to block their plans for disposing of mine tailings.

The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council invited Coeur Alaska, the Environmental Protection Agency and other parties to discuss the latest stalemate holding up production at the mine north of Juneau.

Coeur d’Alene Mines spokesman Tony Ebersole said the company is not interested and that an alternate plan for disposal of mine tailings, a “paste tailings” plan, is not feasible.

Ebersole said the company will continue to pursue its original tailings plan that calls for disposal in Lower Slate Lake.

Tailings are the waste left over after metals are extracted from ore.

Coeur’s original plan for putting tailings in the lake triggered a lawsuit by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Sierra Club and Lynn Canal Conservation Inc.

The groups said the Clean Water Act prohibits the dumping of tailings into lakes, rivers and streams.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. Coeur Alaska Inc. and the state of Alaska in January jointly appealed and the matter is pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. A decision is expected next year.

Coeur d’Alene Mines announced last month that because of new permitting delays, it is abandoning the permitting process for an alternative paste tailings plan.

Coeur balked when the EPA asked for additional information on a dry stack approach for tailings. The company has interpreted that communication as a call for a new tailings disposal approach.

The company contends that requested changes to the environmental assessment would cause significant delays.

EPA and other federal and state regulatory agencies claim EPA’s comments should not take a substantial amount of time to resolve.

The paste tailings plan proposed mixing tailings with cement and depositing the resulting paste near Comet Beach on Lynn Canal. According to environmental groups, it would have been a less expensive alternative then completely removing water from tailings and stacking them as a dry product.

Ebersole said that for the paste tailings plan to be feasible, all permits had to be completed by this fall.

Rob Cadmus of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council said his organization offered to help the company find ways to expedite the remainder of the permitting process for a paste tailings plan, a plan Coeur developed through mediated talks with conservation groups.

Since canceling the paste tailings permitting process, the company has laid off about 40 workers, about half of its preproduction work force.