This is Mark Steen’s reply to me.  My letter to the Colorado Division of Mining, Reclamation, and Safety generally said that there had been some lack of oversight and stewardship in the past and we appreciate the oversight of the State to ensure proper and safe operations.  Mr. Steen’s letter is a good clarification of the history of the Mill, etc.  He asked that we publish his communications.

Gretchen Diefenderfer
9147 Sunshine Canyon drive Boulder, Colorado 80302

<gretchend@nullme.com>

Gretchen Diefendefer:

December 29, 2018

COLORADO MILLING COMPANY, LLC P.O. Box 1523

Longmont, Colorado 80502

The Colorado Milling Company, LLC is herewith responding to your email regarding the Application for an Amendment to the Gold Hill Mill Limited Impact 110 (2) Permit No. M-1994- 117, filed to add the previously permitted Left Hand Creek Pump Station, Gold Hill Mill Pipeline, and the Times Mine adit portal to the affected land boundary of the Gold Hill Mill Permit.

As you know, Gold Hill Mill has only been owned and actually operated by four companies since it was constructed in 1986 and 1987. The first was the original permitted operator, the Gold Hill Ventures Limited Partnership; the second was a company called Colina Oro Molina; the third company was ITEC Environmental; and the fourth was Mount Royale Ventures. Of the four companies that owned and operated the milling facility, only one, Colina Oro Molina, was responsible for all of the operational violations at the Gold Hill Mill.

Colina Oro Molina was owned and controlled by Gwen Fraser of Seattle, Washington. She placed her brother, J. Wayne Tatman, in control of the Gold Hill Mill on October 23, 1990. The fact thatColina Oro Molina’s on-site Mill Superintendent was totally incapable of managing the Gold Hill Mill quickly became apparent to anyone in contact with J. Wayne Tatman. He had convinced his naïve and very gullible sister that he could make her tens of millions of dollars by processing just a few thousand tons of platinum, palladium and gold ore from a secret placer deposit he owned ifhe only had access to the Gold Hill Mill’s processing equipment. When this ridiculous geologicimpossibility came to naught, the owners of the Cash Mine refused to ship any ore to the mill until it was competently managed. Shortly after this, Colina Oro Molina began importing ore from all over the place in clear violation of the original State and County Permits. Every serious violationat the Gold Hill Mill dates from Mr. Tatman’s appointment to a position that he proved entirelyunsuited for to every observer except his devoted sister. In almost every instance, the undersigned individual was responsible for alerting the Division of Reclamation, the Boulder County Land UseDepartment, and the Gold Hill Committee on Mining & the Environment of J. Wayne Tatman’spermit violations. This is readily discernable to anyone who looks through the correspondence on file with the Division of Reclamation regarding this permit. At no time did the owners of the mines in this district ever attempt to import ore from off-site. The only material that was ever brought to the mill from any site other than the Cash Mine was imported there by Colina Oro Molina. When J. Wayne Tatman finally departed the territory in 1997, the facility and permit were in complete disarray and his sister was considerably poorer if not much wiser.

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The next permitted operator of the Gold Hill Mill was ITEC Environmental. This company spent a great deal of time and money addressing the problems created by the aforementioned J. WayneTatman. When the price of gold fell below this company’s breakeven price, they sold the GoldHill Mill back to the original owners before they had processed any significant ore through the mill. There were no operational permit violations during the time when ITEC Environmental was in charge of the Gold Hill Mill.

Mount Royale Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of a Canadian public company, was the next permitted operator of the Gold Hill Mill. They were only processing at the Gold Hill Mill for approximately eighteen months during 2007 and 2008. Mismanagement and wasteful expenditures doomed this company to failure, but there were no serious permit violations discovered by the Division of Reclamation while this company was operating the Gold Hill Mill.

The point of recounting all of this history is to inform and remind you just who was actually responsible for all of the past problems you are revisiting in your letter. As for your claimed lack of stewardship shown in the past, the Colorado Milling Company, LLC has gone to great lengths to clean up the mess left behind when Mount Royale Ventures was forced off the property. It has spent considerable effort and funds cleaning up after the previous operators of the Gold Hill Mill. This should be easily discoverable to anyone who simply looks around the millsite.

The Colorado Milling Company, LLC is committed to following the terms and conditions of the original permit issued on September 26, 1985, and that includes restoring the use of the legal source of water for the Gold Hill Mill. It remains something of a mystery that you never broached thesubject of the Gold Hill Mill Waterline’s lack of repair and utilization during the years when MountRoyale Ventures was the permitted operator of the Gold Hill Mill.

The Colorado Milling Company, LLC’s representatives are prepared to address any otherlegitimate concerns or problems that you want to bring to their attention.

Sincerely

Mark A. Steen
Colorado Milling Company, LLC

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