Also the US mine...

Also the US mine
https://www.greenvilleonline.com/st...-promise-250-jobs-near-kershaw-sc/1595325001/


Billions of dollars in gold sparks mine expansion, promise of 250 jobs near SC town
Sammy Fretwell, The State Published 11:54 a.m. ET June 28, 2019


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Potentially rich deposits of gold in South Carolina are fueling the expansion of a huge mine that has boosters excited about the prospect of 250 new jobs in a tiny community with a history of unemployment.
OceanaGold’s expansion plan says the Australian company would increase its existing 4,552-acre Haile Gold Mine site by more than 900 acres near Kershaw, a town in Lancaster County halfway between Columbia and Charlotte.
But the proposal to expand won’t happen until federal and state environmental regulators decide whether to approve the bigger mine — and some folks are leery of how more digging might affect the landscape from a gold mine that already is larger than any ever established in South Carolina.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control calls the mine expansion “substantial.’’
“We recognize that mining jobs are valuable to the local economy, but there are boom and bust problems that the gold mining industry has a painful history with,’’ the Sierra Club’s Bob Guild said. “From an environmental perspective, we are trying to make sure we address these problems.’’
According to plans filed with the state, OceanaGold is seeking to dig an underground mine that would extend up to 1,314 feet below the surface, while combining five existing excavation pits at the site in southern Lancaster County.
A waste lagoon, known as a tailings pond, would be enlarged by about 20 percent to handle more mining waste, according to plans. Records show the area of the tailings pond, which will hold cyanide waste, would rise from 524 acres to 632 acres. The bigger pond would have the capacity to hold 72 million tons, up from 40 million tons
The Haile Gold Mine expansion also would roughly triple the amount of potentially acid generating rock that will be piled up and stored at the mining site, according to an application to expand the mine filed June 13 with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Acid drainage and cyanide are among the major environmental threats from gold mines across the country, contaminating groundwater and rivers in some places.