Hardy Dump Wellfield

Challenge

The Mineral Park mine is located near Kingman, AZ and is an open pit copper mining operation that has had mining activities in the region and site for over 100 years.

Mining facilities include multiple open pits, a tailings storage facility, multiple heap leach facilities, multiple waste rock dumps, SX/EW plant and associated infrastructure and a mill including associated infrastructure.

Mineral Park entered into a consent order with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) in 2018 as a result of historical groundwater contamination.

Solution

SLR led the groundwater investigation resulting in a Conceptual Site Model (CSM) and the identification of corrective actions. One of the selected corrective actions is the capturing of groundwater downgradient of the Hardy Dump to prevent future discharge to groundwater from the facility.

Our Role

• Geochemical characterization and the development of a site wide CSM
• Regulatory interaction and permitting
• Engineering and design of an automated groundwater extraction wellfield
• Oversight of well installation, aquifer testing, and well development
• Construction Quality Assurance and Commissioning

Highlights

• The diverse skillsets SLR brought to the program resulted in an accelerated process from investigation to the selection of corrective actions to implementation and eventually release of the Consent Order
• SLR conducted an alternatives analysis and risk matrix that resulted in the Hardy Dump Wellfield
• The location of the wellfield allows for processing of extracted groundwater and the generation of copper via SW/EW
• The wellfield ties into the existing plant site PLC resulting in greater efficiency, reduced cost, and a reduced installation timeline

Impact

This project is a great example of SLR’s diverse skillsets applied in a complex environment to result in a timely, cost effective and most importantly, a reliable groundwater contamination corrective action.