Rio Algom Limited & Denison Mines Inc. Community Newsletter 2015

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1 Rio Algom Limited & Denison Mines Inc. Community Newsletter 2015 Strong, Effective Regulation Helps Improve Elliot Lake Site Environment What does the CNSC do? The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) oversees the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians and the environment; to implement Canada s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy; and to disseminate objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public. Since 1946, the CNSC and its predecessor, the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB), have Inside This Newsletter... Strong, Effective Regulation Helps Improve Elliot Lake Site Environment Maintaining and Monitoring our Sites Disposal of Low-Level Radioactive Artifacts Watershed Monitoring Map Tresspassing Learning from Mount Polley Will the Mines Re-open? Keeping in Touch regulated Canada s nuclear sector, continuously strengthening Canada s laws, regulations and licensing requirements, and enforcing compliance by licensees. Canada s nuclear sector has an excellent safety record, and its nuclear facilities are among the safest and most secure in the world due in large part to the CNSC s strong, effective regulation. CNSC s role at Elliot Lake mine sites The CNSC regulates inactive mines sites and tailings management areas in and around Elliot Lake by closely monitoring their maintenance and environmental performance. Two licensees are responsible for these sites, Rio Algom Ltd. (RAL) and Denison Mines Inc. (DMI) The CNSC annually reviews results of the various monitoring programs that RAL and DMI implement. The reports demonstrate that over the past decade, the overall environmental conditions, which resulted from previous mining operations, are improving at the Elliot Lake sites. More specifically, water quality is improving and environmental impacts are being reduced. One example is the improvement in the benthic communities, which are species that inhabit the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake, including the sediment surface and some subsurface layers. Issues such as fewer varieties and quantities of species in the benthic communities are now only evident at areas immediately downstream of the Quirke, Denison and Stanleigh tailings management areas. Lakes farther afield are in good environmental health, with metrics on benthic communities health similar to those for healthy white suckers (a benthic species) in lakes that were not used for tailings. In addition to reviewing reports, the CNSC conducts regular inspections to ensure that the licensees are complying with their licence and that activities are being carried out in a safe manner. During these inspections, CNSC staff inspect dams and other containment structures, collect and analyze water samples, and review safety procedures. The Commission, the CNSC s decisionmaking body, requires periodic updates on the safety of these facilities. Dams are an integral part of the mine site tailings management What s next? These sites will continue to require monitoring and active management until effluents meet discharge criteria without need for treatment. These sites will then require some form of ongoing permanent care and maintenance. CNSC conducts regular site inspections

2 Pg 2 Maintaining and Monitoring our Sites Rio Algom Limited (RAL) and Denison Mines Inc. (DMI) are committed to a high standard of operation, care and maintenance to ensure the continued safe and reliable performance of our tailings management areas and water treatment plants. Our maintenance plan requires us to regularly evaluate the age, performance and life expectancy of our equipment and facilities for replacement and repair as required. This article will review some of the typical maintenance activities that are performed at the site as well as some specific or one time activities that have occurred in the last year or are planned for the remainder of and 2015 RAL Projects Sherriff Lake Access Road Maintenance: Periodic maintenance of the internal access road between Stanleigh and Nordic was completed during the low flow season in the summer of Work included replacement of culverts downstream of Sheriff Lake and installation of a culvert on the Red Trail at the Sheriff Creek Sanctuary. Thank you to local trail users for cooperating with trail closures during construction. maintenance including roof replacement at Quirke. In addition, engineering work is in progress to finalize improvements to lime slurry and barium chloride spill containment at the Quirke plant. We are planning to replace the roof and complete exterior work at Quirke in the late summer or early fall of 2015 with tank replacements and pump relocation work within the building scheduled for winter of Treatment Plant Computer Replacement: All of our water treatment plants are instrumented and relay key operating information (such as ph, a key water quality indicator, and water flow) and other alarm features to a centralized computer. Upgrades to this remote monitoring network were completed in July In 2015 we plan to replace the computers at the plants that monitor the instrumentation to initiate the alarms and control the rate of lime addition. Rock placement at Sherriff Creek DES staff regularly monitor the area lakes and waterways Quirke and Panel Effluent Treatment Plant Engineering Assessment: The engineering structural assessment of our Quirke and Panel plants completed in 2014 confirmed that the buildings remain structurally sound but require Sherriff Creek access improvements End of the day equipment cleaning

3 Pg 3 Maintaining and Monitoring our Sites Continued from page 2, 2014 and 2015 RAL projects Dam Instrumentation Improvements: As a follow-up to the Mount Polley dam failure, we have retained a geotechnical engineer to review our current instrumentation used to monitor the performance of our dams. The engineer has identified a number of wells that monitor water levels within the dam structure that are not functioning as designed and will be replaced this summer. In addition we will be conducting a survey of the top of our dams to confirm they have not settled and remain at design height Denison Mines InC. (DMI) Projects Treatment Plant Upgrades: Two projects completed last year were the upgrades to the Denison TMA-1 Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and the related communication upgrades to the TMA-1 ETP, Stanrock ETP, and the two pump stations at Stanrock Dam G and Dam M. These improvements have enabled continuous operation and remote monitoring of the treatment plants. Operators continue to visit the site daily through the work week to complete inspections and conduct environmental and quality control checks. Operators now have the ability to check on the plant operations remotely at any time of the day. Ongoing remediation of site is essential to help restore the land To keep systems operating well, regular maintenance is completed on all equipment Disposal of Low-Level Radioactive Artifacts Over the course of operations at the Denison Mines Inc. (DMI) and Rio Algom Ltd. (RAL) mines in Elliot Lake, employees were given small mementos such as clocks, keychains, bookends, or ore/product samples as gifts or tokens of gratitude which contained small quantities of radioactive materials. While the level of radiation is very low; these artifacts may contain sufficient material to generate radiation greater than background levels, and should be disposed of in a safe and appropriate manner, and not into the local landfill. To this end, DMI and RAL are encouraging members of the community who have these types of artifacts in their possession to bring them in to the Denison Environmental Services office for proper disposal. Treatment plant computer replacement and upgrades Mining/milling samples should be brought to DES for proper disposal Mementos from mining days may contain uranium or other radioactive materials

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5 Pg 6 Maintaining and Monitoring our Sites Continued from page 3 Drop Box Pond Before construction 2015 DMI Planned Projects There are a number of improvement projects planned for 2015 at both the Denison and Stanrock sites. Although each of these are relatively small scale improvements they will all result in improvement of the condition of the closed sites. Planned projects include: Upgrades to the Lower Williams Lake treatment plant including secondary containment and replacement of reagent storage tanks, Fertilization and seeding of a sparsely vegetated section of the Stanrock TMA, Lowering of a filter berm installed at the outlet of the Stollery settling pond by approximately 0.5 metres to reduce the water level of the pond, Maintenance of covers of several backfilled mine openings as well as a few outlet structures to restore them after minor subsidence, Improvements to a historical berm at Denison s drop box pond including raising the structure by 0.25 metres and applying rip rap to the upstream and downstream faces. Upgrades to an outlet structure at the Denison Tailings Management Area 2 (TMA-2) from wooden logs to a concrete structure. An administrative project is in process at Stanrock where Denison will transfer two mining claims to leases, an initiative that required a complete legal survey of the area in question. In 2014, Denison hired a local company, Tulloch Geomatics, to complete this survey. In addition, Denison also performed this survey to allow changes to the licence boundary at Stanrock. Denison is currently proposing to the CNSC, to exclude from the licenced area, portions of the southern parts of two claims. This would allow the City of Elliot Lake to proceed with residential development in the Quirke Bay area of Quirke Lake. (WFOL). This change is needed to reflect the fact that decommissioning activities at the sites are complete. It is expected that the licence changes will be completed in Trespassing Elliot Lake has rich trail systems, some of which pass onto private property owned by Rio Algom and Denison. We permit residents and visitors to hike on these trails as well as the site access roads, but we would also like to remind visitors to hike responsibly, be mindful of our workforce, and to always obey posted signage. Persons entering these properties without the express authorization and request of the property owners are doing so at their own risk and should take appropriate precautions. Care and maintenance of the closed mine sites is carried out on a daily basis, including weekends. Workers may be on-site at any time, performing inspections, maintenance work, or responding to upset conditions. For the safety of our employees, contractors, and others, we remind you to heed all posted signs, and keep your pet under control. For the safety of our workers and the public, pets should be on leashes and under control at all times when within mine property. Unauthorized motor vehicles including ATVs, UTVs and snowmachines are prohibited on all Rio Algom and Denison sites. Hunting, fishing and camping are also prohibited. These policies are clearly posted at all sites, however, recently, there has been an increase in persons illegally engaging in these activities. As a result, enforcement efforts are going to be increased this year and trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. After construction A parallel project involves a change in our Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Licence from Uranium Mine Decommissioning Licences (UMDL) for Denison and Stanrock to a single combined Waste Facility Operating Licence Pets must be on a leash at all times when within mine property

6 Pg 7 David Brown: Rio Algom Limited Dave Brown has recently joined Rio Algom Limited (RAL) as the Site Superintendent for the North American Closed Sites Group. He will be based in Elliot Lake and brings 15 years of experience in environmental consulting, mining and construction. During his career, Dave has developed extensive knowledge pertaining to the management of closed mines and mine decommissioning including permitting, mine closure planning, geochemistry, and development of long term strategies for acid rock drainage and metal leaching for waste rock and tailings management planning. In his capacity as Site Superintendent, Dave will focus on continuous improvements and field programs pertaining to site stability and the environment. Dave was born in Elliot Lake and raised in Massey, Ontario and has worked for much of his career in northern Ontario. Dave is committed to developing and maintaining a cooperative interest in the health and safety of fellow workers, local communities and the environment. Uranium was originally discovered in Elliot Lake in the early 1950s and by the late 1950s there were 11 mines operating in Elliot Lake. Following the cancellation of contracts most of these mines shut down and following a resumption of mining in the 1970s all mines were shut down in the 1990s and decommissioned. The Elliot Lake orebody remains very large but low grade. In the 1970s another significant mineral exploration program in Saskatchewan resulted in the discovery of the Athabasca ore bodies which are very rich. Due to economic factors, the only operating uranium mines in Canada are located in the Athabasca region of Saskatchewan. In Elliot Lake the ore grades were 0.1% or 2 pounds of uranium per ton of ore mined whereas in Saskatchewan the ore grades are often higher than 10% or 200 pounds of uranium per ton of ore mined. This difference in grade is an important consideration for any mining company with respect to the economics of mining an ore body as the cost of production is directly tied to the grade of the reserve being mined. Denison and Rio Algom often get asked questions concerning whether the companies would be re-opening the mines. Both companies have gone on record and again confirm that they have no plans for reopening our mines for conventional uranium mining. Will the Mines Re-open? Denison mines in foreground, Stanrock mine in background. Circa 1990 Learning from Mount Polley On 4 August 2014 the perimeter containment dam at the Mount Polley tailings storage facility failed. The spill flooded Polley Lake, its outflow Hazeltine Creek, and continued into nearby Quesnel Lake and Cariboo Creek. Fortunately no person was injured, but as the environmental clean-up is on-going it is important that we continue to learn from this event. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission geotechnical inspection of our facilities immediately following the incident did not identify any action items, but did make minor recommendations regarding inspection which have been implemented. On January 30, 2015 the Mount Polley Independent Expert Engineering Investigation and Review Panel released their report confirming that the dam failure at Mount Polley was associated with failure of the glacial till foundation materials and was compounded by the steep slope (1.3 horizontal to 1.0 vertical) of the supporting downstream rockfill section of the dam. Our geotechnical engineer has reviewed all of the Elliot Lake dams and confirmed that similar conditions do not exist at our dams. Most of our dams in Elliot Lake are built on bedrock and where they are built on glacial tills the slope of the downstream rockfill section is flatter at a minimum slope of 2.0 horizontal to 1.0 vertical. As well, many of our dams not founded on bedrock have an additional zone of rockfill downstream to increase stability of the structure. Our final learning will be to survey the tops of our larger dams to confirm they have not settled (e.g. no change in foundation) and remain at design height. Dave Brown at Quirke gate

7 Pg 8 Keeping in Touch Response Form You are invited to keep in touch and stay informed about Denison Mines and Rio Algom s activities in the Serpent River Watershed. Each summer the Nuclear and Mining Museum organizes tours of the mine sites as part of the Uranium Heritage Days festivities (Thank You Darla Hennessey!). If you prefer written material, our newsletter is published annually in the Standard and our technical reports on the Serpent River Watershed are available at the Elliot Lake library or by contacting either Ian Ludgate or Debbie Berthelot. If your group or organization is interested in a presentation on our activities or would like to arrange a group tour of our sites, please complete the response form on the right. Safety is a prime concern at DES, especially for our workers. You may see us wearing our personal protective equipment and taking time to use safe driving and boating practices. We d like your thoughts about our performance in the operation, care and maintenance of our closed mine sites. Please call us or send us a note. We ll respond as quickly as possible. Cut out this form and use it to mail your comments to: Debbie Berthelot Reclamation Manager, Elliot Lake Rio Algom Limited P.O. Box 38 Elliot Lake, Ontario P5A 2J6 debbie.berthelot@bhpbilliton.com or Ian Ludgate Manager Denison Mines Inc. 1 Horne Walk, Suite 200 Elliot Lake, Ontario P5A 2A5 iludgate@denisonenvironmental.com Elliot Lake Closed Mine Site Operation, Care and Maintenance Question(s): I d like to know more about: Your name and address (please print): Telephone: Fax: Date: Thank You!