Assignment
The Buckhorn Mountain mine is the first new underground gold mine in the State of Washington in about 15 years and is expected to generate 200 mine-related jobs for the community. Golder provided technical and permitting services for mine construction, operations, and closure.

Our Role
Golder helped Kinross Gold win the approval of an underground-tunnelled mine (instead of the originally planned open-pit mine) by providing a variety of services that showed how water quality and other environmental impacts would be closely monitored and mitigated. We pooled resources from our Washington, Colorado, British Columbia, and Ontario offices to provide engineering, hydrological, geochemical, and ecological work. Other significant work included technical studies to support a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, water rights applications submitted to the Washington State Department of Ecology, and evaluation of long-term impacts on Buckhorn Mountain's hydrologic and aquatic environment. Golder provided the overall strategy, approach and technical work for the project's stormwater, water supply and wastewater discharge permits. Work included hydrologic/hydrogeological characterization, geochemical modeling, biological field surveys and engineering studies.