Gold had been discovered at Summitville in 1870. By 1885 there were over 250 individual claims in operation. The site was soon mined out, with the weather of the 3,500 m high site adding to difficulties. The site was re-opened on a number of occasions for gold or other metals but with little success, prior to the site's acquisition in 1984 the last survey was in the early 1970s for copper. The total amount of gold extracted from the site from 1873 until 1959 was around 257,600 ounces.
In 1984 an area of 1230 acres was acquired by the Galactic Resources Ltd. subsidiary Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. (SCMCI). They began a new large-scale open pit operation covering 550 acres. The use of new techniques was used to extract gold from otherwise uneconomic ore.
The mining involved the treatment of pyritic ore with a sodium cyanide solution to leach the gold out of the ore - heap leaching (see also cyanide process). The solution (leachate) was then removed from the ore and the valuable metals extracted using activated carbon. SCMCI leached around 10 million tons of ore on a 73 acre heap leach pad. The mining operations were finished in October 1991 with the leaching continuing until March 1992. 294,365 ounces of gold and 319,814 ounces of silver were recovered. SCMCI then closed the site and converted on-site equipment for the detoxification process, with around 160 million gallons of stored water needing treatment.
In 1991 SCMCI was served with a Cease and Desist Order by the state government, concerned with metal levels in nearby water due to the run-off of excess water from the heap leach pad and through the damaged pad liner. Possibly 85,000 gallons of contaminated water had leaked into nearby creeks. In December 1992 Galactic Resources Ltd. declared itself bankrupt and declared that the site clean-up operations would halt immediately. The site clean-up was undertaken by the EPA, from 1994 under Superfund Emergency Response. The main problem was the contaminated water held in an inadequate pond system. Another source of contamination was water leaking from older underground workings. The EPA estimated that 3,000 gallons was leaking from the site every minute. However, despite the water having a pH of around 3 (acidic), a USGS study stated that the run-off was no serious threat.
$155 million was spent on the site for detoxification and to reduce leakage. Robert Friedland, the chairman of Galactic Resources Ltd. paid around $30 million in settlement.
It was the worst cyanide spill in American history. Cyanide, heavy metals and acid from the mine in killed all aquatic life in 17 miles of the Alamosa River.History
The Cease and Desist Order and economic cost
The final outcome