Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 2. Alternatives, Including the Proposed Action
Figure 19. Uranium mine tunnel and haul equipment at Mining Museum in Grants
Mine Reclamation
Mine reclamation would be the last phase of the proposed operation. Mine reclamation is
designed to reclaim the effects of mining and achieve a post-mining land use of grazing. Most
reclamation would occur after mining is complete, because major surface facilities are planned to
be used for the life of the underground mine. This type of reclamation is termed final reclamation.
RHR estimates that the life of the mine would be approximately 18–19 years. Final reclamation
would be complete at that time. Some contemporaneous reclamation is planned, which is
reclamation that would be conducted during the development or operations period.
RHR initially presented general reclamation concepts in “Reclamation Plan for Roca Honda
Mine” (Roca Honda Resources, 2009b). However, revision 1 of the plan contains more detailed
reclamation designs. Forest Service regulations at 36 CFR 228.13 require a mine operator to
furnish a reclamation bond before a plan of operations is approved. The purpose of the
reclamation bond is to provide for reclamation of mining-related disturbance in the event that
RHR does not reclaim the mine. The regulations require that the amount of the reclamation bond
be based on “the estimated cost of stabilizing, rehabilitating, and reclaiming the area of
operations.” The following section summarize RHR’s proposed reclamation plan.
Contemporaneous Reclamation
Contemporaneous reclamation is reclamation that would be conducted during the mine
development and/or operations phases. RHR would implement contemporaneous reclamation to
the maximum extent practicable. Nevertheless, in an underground mining operation such as the
proposed action, opportunities for contemporaneous reclamation are limited compared to a
46 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest