Rare Element Resources
Bear Lodge Project
Canadian NI 43-101 Technical Report
October 9
th
, 2014
10135-200-46 - Rev. 0
18-32
reclamation of completed areas within the TSF will be accessed by means of a
network of haul roads established within and around the TSF footprint. Tailings will be
end-dumped and spread with a dozer. Compaction of the waste will occur through
material settlement as well as truck and dozer traffic associated with waste
placement.
The TSF will be developed in a progressive sequence beginning at the north end of
the facility and expanded southward. Construction stages for the TSF starter facility,
Year 3 facility, Year 8 facility, Year 16 facility and Year 45 (LOM) facility are
presented on Figures 18.13 through 18.17, respectively. The main TSF embankment
along the eastern side and the north and south abutment berms will buttress the
waste for long-term stability and control contact water within the TSF limits. As the
TSF expands both vertically and laterally, the TSF liner system will be expanded in a
manner to create a continuous liner system in the TSF. Intermediate berms will be
constructed along the southern and western limits of each stage of liner construction
to facilitate liner connection, TSF expansions, provide toe support to the waste slope
during placement of the waste, and minimize surface water run-on into the active TSF
area from the area between the active area and the surface-water diversion ditch.
As part of the proposed liner system for the TSF, a 2- to 3-foot thick protective
operations layer is included immediately over the geomembrane to protect against
damage during placement of waste over the liner. No equipment will access the
geomembrane liner directly and low ground pressure equipment will be used to place
the protective cover material. Should high ground-pressure equipment be required to
traverse over the operations layer prior to coverage with waste, the thickness of the
operations layer soil in that traffic path should be increased by an additional 3 feet of
material capable of supporting the vehicular loads.
Contact surface water runoff from active areas of the TSF will drain to collection
pond(s) constructed down-gradient of the active area and within the TSF footprint.
Sediment control from the active areas will be controlled as appropriate with silt
fences, or other best management practices, with the collection pond being the final
means to manage erosion from the active area of the TSF.
18.2.7.4.1
Tailings Transport and Deposition
The dewatered and neutralized tailings at the plant site will be loaded into haul trucks
with a front-end loader and transported to the TSF. Based on an 8,000-foot average
round-trip haul distance and a 15- to 20-minute cycle time, two 20-ton haul trucks
