Water Services for Mount Milligan Mine

Centerra Gold Mount Milligan Mine is location west of Mackenzie, BC. It is a conventional truck-shovel open-pit copper and gold mine and concentrator. It is estimated to have 959 million pound of copper and 2.4 million ounces of gold and an expecting mine lifetime of 9 years. A mining operation like this requires a number of water services such as:

· major groundwater exploration/supply development

· conceptual/numerical groundwater modelling

· water licensing

· dewatering wells

· water quality monitoring & assessment

Waterline assisted with major groundwater exploration/supply development and conceptual/numerical groundwater modelling to develop water supply for the mine. Then identified and provided regulatory and stakeholder support to license a 200 L/s water supply.

Waterline was retained to design and supervise the installation of a tailings dewatering well field system withing the tailings storage facility at the Mount Milligan Mine. This system was designed to recycle >100 L/s of process water return to the mill. Waterline continues to monitor and track system operations to ensure regulatory compliance and pumping optimization.

Waterline also completed site wide water quality assessment since mining began with over 7 years of monitoring data as part of a Developed Site Wide Adaptive Management and Monitoring Plan, on-going water quality data management and regulatory reporting. Waterline is currently working on a TSF seepage assessment study and related management plan.