Aren Hall

As the Environmental & Permitting manager, responsibility extends across the following business units of the operating Castle Mountain Mine.

1-Environmental compliance with all laws, and regulations.

2-Permitting that is completed and renewed timely.

3-Land management across private lands, mine claims and new land purchases.

4-Community relations across a diverse group project stakeholders and government officials.

Critical to this position is the advancement of mine expansion NEPA & CEQA permitting that requires regular cooperation with several state and federal agencies, stakeholders and elected officials. This also requires a diverse knowledge of natural resources including air and water quality analysis as well as biological and cultural resources.

The Mountain Pass Mine is the only operating Rare Earth elements mine in the Western Hemisphere. As the Environment Dept Supervisor, my responsibility included compliance with all environmental laws and regulations, oversight land management, implementation of the Environmental Management System (EMS), and to manage a staff of three environmental professionals.

The focus of the EMS system was ISO 140001 certification and environmental plans that included:

• Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPP)
• Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC Plan)
• Public water system oversight
• Risk Management Plan (RMP)

Central to environmental compliance was managing several Water Board Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs) permits and a Cleanup and Abatement Order (CAO) which required oversight of a 100+ groundwater monitoring well network with quarterly reporting.

Kleinfelder is a full service environmental consulting firm. My focus area was groundwater monitoring and remediation projects that included mine sites, gas stations, industrial manufacturing and insitu bioremediation projects.

Other tasks included:

• Phase I and II environmental site assessments and remediation recommendations.
• Air quality monitoring and analysis of air pollutants.
• Soil gas vapor sampling plans.
• Groundwater monitoring & sampling.
• Contaminated soil sampling and characterization