ENVIRONMENT

Mining company agrees to pay Colorado $1.6 million in Gold King Mine spill settlement

When bulkheads were installed in the American Tunnel, the amount of heavy metal laden water from the higher up Gold King Mine began to increase, according to a federal investigation.

Jesse Paul 11:30 AM MST on Dec 13, 2021



In this Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015 file photo, people kayak in the Animas River near Durango, Colo., in water colored yellow from a mine-waste spill. A crew supervised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been blamed for causing the spill while attempting to clean up the area near the abandoned Gold King Mine. (Jerry McBride/The Durango Herald via AP, FILE)

A mining company has agreed to pay the state of Colorado $1.6 million to settle claims related to the 2015 blowout of the Gold King Mine near Silverton, which sent millions of gallons of orange-yellow water laden with heavy metals cascading down the Animas River and into New Mexico and Utah.

The settlement with Sunnyside Gold Corp. resolves the company’s liability “for damaged natural resources,” according to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. The deal was announced Monday.

Sunnyside doesn’t own the Gold King mine. But it does own the nearby Sunnyside Mine, which is just below the Gold King. The company operated the Sunnyside Mine from 1986 until 1991, when the mine closed. The Sunnyside Mine was a major employer in Silverton.

When bulkheads were installed in the American Tunnel, the main access portal to the Sunnyside Mine, the amount of water polluted with heavy metals flowing from the higher up Gold King Mine began to increase, according to a federal investigation.



Cement Creek flows a few miles downstream from the Gold King Mine near Silverton on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

The owner of the Gold King Mine at the time of the Aug. 5, 2015, blowout has long alleged that the Sunnyside Mine’s bulkheads were responsible for the amount of the water that had built up in the Gold King.

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