A number of key permits and environmental management requirements have been identified for the Elk Creek Project, some of which need to be implemented as soon as practicable in order to maintain the proposed Elk Creek Project schedule.
? While not necessarily complex, the timing generally required to complete permitting through any federal regulatory agency requires that NioCorp engage key agencies (in this case the USACE and possibly the EPA) early on in Elk Creek Project development and consider the siting and orientation of facilities carefully to minimize the risk of a protracted National Environmental Policy Act analysis of the Elk Creek Project.
Perhaps one of the most critical approvals likely to be needed by the operation will be a radioactive materials license from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (“NDHHS”), Office of Radiological Health. Because of their limited experience with hard rock mining in the State of Nebraska, much less mining that includes Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, the NDHHS may require additional information and more time to approve the Elk Creek Project under a Broad Scope License. Early and frequent engagement is a necessity with respect to this regulatory agency.
Documentation of existing baseline environmental conditions at the Elk Creek Project site was initiated in 2014 and should continue throughout the permitting process. Additional studies will need to be added once regulatory authorities have been given an opportunity to review the current mine plan presented in the Revised Elk Creek Feasibility Study and assess their particular data needs for approval of the Elk Creek Project.
Surface water monitoring should continue throughout the permitting process and extend into construction and operations as part of the Environmental Management System. The NDEQ Water Quality Division has been engaged in order to discuss the Elk Creek Project and potential data needs for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System discharge permit. This would include both local discharges (if needed) as well as discharges to the Missouri River.
A wetland delineation and potential jurisdictional waters assessment was conducted in late 2014 to identify wetland and drainage features within the proposed Elk Creek Project boundary which resulted in a formal JD being issued by the USACE on September 6, 2016. The entire project has been authorized under the non-notifying provisions of Nationwide Permit 12.
Ground water contamination will be taken very seriously in this day of over irrigation for agriculture, the depletion of the ogallala just a few miles west, and unrecouped freshwater from fracking to the south.
