2014-03-27_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981019

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reclamation efforts; however, with proper engineering design and understanding the limitations of the dragline, Colowyo was able to backfill and regrade a large amount of material in 2011. This effort equated into 34.7 acres of regraded surface that was at the approved final elevation. A year later Phase I release was granted on 56.2 acres of the dragline regraded area, which was one step in many to complete the overall project. Colowyo understood that the bulk of the material to complete the West Pit Fill project could not be moved by the dragline without rehandling the material three to four times prior to final placement. Not only is this an inefficient use of the dragline, it would have also been very time consuming and expensive. Therefore, Colowyo's engineering department began efforts to plan out the most efficient method and equipment needed to finish the backfill and regrade efforts for the area. As backfill efforts continued with the dragline in 2012, Colowyo identified another significant issue with the project. A topsoil pile at the edge of the disturbance limit on the West Pit Fill, if not relocated immediately would be isolated and not easily accessible by a loader and 240 -ton trucks. The topsoil contained nearly 75,000 cubic yards of material, and Colowyo did not have enough regraded surface prepared to lay down the entire pile. Through careful planning, Colowyo operations moved the entire topsoil to strategic locations within and adjacent to areas of regrade, which staged the topsoil for final placement once the final regrade was complete in 2013. During the winter of 2011 -2012, Colowyo's engineering team indicated the most efficient equipment fleet to complete the reclamation project would be a scraper fleet. Colowyo does not own a fleet of scrapers that could complete the regrade in the timeframe that was schedule in the permit; therefore, engineering calculated the proper scraper size and units needed, and Colowyo rented a scraper fleet in 2012 to begin moving material during the reclamation season. Another issue that Colowyo faced was not having enough trained personal to operate the scraper fleet and continue mining operations to meet contract requirement to consumers, thus a crew of temporary operators was hired to operate the scrapers. During 2012, the rental scraper fleet, temporary operators, and Colowyo trained supervisors moved a large portion of the backfill material and setup the final step in the project to occur in 2013.