2013-09-11_REVISION - M1999033 (6)

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EXHIBIT B —SITE DESCRIPTION The Howard Creek Pit is located app. 3.1 miles west of the intersection of US Highway 50 and Howard Creek Road (County Road 4), in western Fremont County. The proposed pit lies along Howard Creek, a drainage of the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at an elevation of 7800 feet. Howard Creek drains into the Arkansas River in the unincorporated community of Howard, 1/4 mile east of the intersection of Highway US 50 and CR4. The mountainous terrain along Howard Creek reflects a high degree of relief with man made and natural occurring vertical rock faces several hundred feet high visible from the proposed mining area. Nearly vertical dipping limestone beds outcropping along Howard Creek were mined from the early 1900's until 1950's. The steep slopes surrounding the drainage are heavily forested with Douglas fir, Rocky Mountain juniper, Pinon pine, and Ponderosa pine, with well developed stands of Cottonwoods along the creek. The Fremont County Soil Survey has snapped a Rentsac very channery loam at this site, a shallow, well drained soil found on mountainsides derived from limestone bedrock. The average annual precipitation is between 11 -15 inches. While the thin native soils are found on grades from 20 to 55 percent, the proposed mining area(s) are relatively flat since they are waste dumps built down grade from the limestone mining pits created by the removal of vertical dipping limestone beds 50 feet to 100 thick and up to several hundred feet above the pit floor elevations. The waste material is limestone fines and rock fragments with minor amounts of volcanic rock, green rhyolite. While little soil development has occurred in the fifty year span of time since the dumps were constructed, the surface of the dumps have reforested quite well due to the relatively damp, cool; environment with plenty of seed sources from the nearby heavily forested slopes. However, the outslopes of the waste dumps have never stabilized since placement at angle of repose and show evidence of rilling and slope failure during stone events. These unstable outslopes of the old waste dumps will become working faces for road material extraction operations. The Howard Creek Pit is located at the site of a limestone mining operation waste dump(s) placed along the south bank of Howard Creek during the early 1900's. The town site of Calcite is less than %4 mile east of the permit area. No buildings or historic structures remain. This small mining district and,community once supplied high calcium carbonate rock for CF &I steel production. Mining was performed by hand working (drill and blast) surface outcrop of nearly vertical dipping limestone beds for up to several tens of yards above the original roadways. It appears that waste removal was minimal and highly dependent on manpower for loading and transport. Waste material including fines and rock fragments up to 12" appear to have been carted or possibly railed a short distance from a few feet to up to 1000 feet down grade of the limestone face. The waste dump is composed of limestone fines and limestone rock fragments up to 12" with a minor amount of rhyolitic volcanic rock. A large (100' wide and 50' tall) exposed and eroding face of the waste dump can be viewed at the entrance to the site at CR4 and Canterbury Ranch Road.