8TH ANNUAL SAN JUAN MINING & RECLAMATION CONFERENCE
THEME: "Planning for Resiliency"
Mining Museum and Community Center
CREEDE, COLORADO: MAY 2-4, 2018
Schedule
Wednesday Evening reception
Thursday Presentations and happy hour exhibit session
Friday Scenario Planninge Exercise and field tours
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE:
Check out this short video to learn about the conference and what makes it unique
The primary goals of this annual conference are to educate the public and other stakeholders on the science and policy of mining, mine lands remediation, and water quality as it relates to non-point source pollution, improving mining practices, and addressing water quality impairments through workshops, field tours, and presentations. Each year the conference is hosted in a different San Juan community to highlight the host area’s mining heritage and successes in conducing mine remediation and water quality improvement projects.
2018 THEME: “Planning for Resiliency”
A long-range view is necessary to build resilient communities and organizations, especially in today’s economy. Times of plenty make it easy to carry on with business as usual. However, disruptive events can impede operations and hinder progress for many years, shifting resources to recovery efforts and away from fundamental objectives. Realizing that very few disasters are completely unexpected or sudden, but rather predictable potentialities with long-term causes, we can proactively design and implement projects to avoid major setbacks and reduce negative consequences.
In mining and reclamation, disruption is often tied to catastrophic environmental events, price fluctuations, shifting regulatory priorities and reduced funding, as well as human error. The theme for the 2018 San Juan Mining & Reclamation Conference, “Planning for Resiliency”, encourages discussions of how the mining and reclamation community can plan for potential disasters. We seek to learn from the experiences and insights of those with approaches to crisis management that weigh the impacts to society, the economy and the environment. We are interested in discussing best practices and solutions from the perspective of how focusing on this triple bottom line effects project development and long-range planning.
We invite bold and frank conversations about topics that have challenged you, may be considered taboo, or can be uncomfortable to share. Through sharing useful information about these topics, the 8th annual San Juan Mining & Reclamation Conference (May 2-4, 2018) aims to create a productive forum with helpful takeaways and more innovative projects. We welcome you to join us for another opportunity of sharing and networking.
Conference Outline
Weds, May 2: Evening reception
4:00-5:00 Mining Museum Tour
5:30-8:30 Reception and Poster Session with Local's Tales (open bar, appetizers provided)
Thurs, May 3: Presentations and Exhibits
8:00 Registration Opens
8:30-12:00 Presentations
12:00-1:30 Lunch break
1:30-4:30 Presentations and Panel Discussion
4:30-6:30 Networking and Poster Session
Fri, May 4: Scenario Planning and Field Tours
8:30 Scenario Planning Exercise
10:30-3:30 Field Tours (see two options below)
Field Tour Options:
Summitville Tour: The Summitville mine site, located West of Del Norte, Colorado, was a gold mining site dating back to the 1870s. Open pit mining of gold, copper, and silver started in the 1980s, impacting nearby rivers and soil. This informal tour will be open for questions and answers from the top of the site. It will cover geology, hydrogeology, historical, and modern day mining up to when it was declared a National Priorities Listed site. It will also cover the timeline of the site cleanup and review historical aerial photos in addition to assessing on-site current conditions. Lessons learned and future plans for the site will also be covered. This field trip will finish off with full display of water treatment practices and a tour of the two historical townsites. This will include learning more of the site history, and visit some of the historical buildings dating back to the early 1880's.
Kerber Creek Tour: Depending on participants, the tour will begin in the upper watershed at the Rawley 12 bulkhead site where tour leaders will describe the history of the Bonanza Mining district and reclamation efforts that began in the 1990’s. The installation of the bulkhead will be described, as well as the relocation of over 100,000 cubic yards of mine waste to a repository lower in the watershed. Before and after photos of the Rawley 12 site will help participants visualize past conditions. The tour will then either move to the Cocomongo Mill on upper Kerber Creek, or up to the Minnie Lynch Mine where three years of reclamation work has recently been completed in partnership with the US Forest Service. Following the upper mine sites, the tour will stop two lower watershed sites; one completed in the fall of 2012 and the other completed in 2015/16. Both of these sites are on private property and will provide examples of stream restoration, floodplain stabilization, and in-situ phytostabilization of mine tailings specific to this project. The tour will give a great representation of the Kerber Creek watershed, as well as the type of partnerships, funding, challenges, and technical approach necessary to complete a successful long-term mine clean-up project.
