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INTRODUCTION <br />The Alma Placer site is located immediately east of the town of Alma in Park County and was <br />initially mined for placer gold by many different methods dating back to the 1870's. The first <br />recorded work at the site took place on the banks of the South Platte in 1872. Sluicing, <br />hydraulicking, tunneling and other methods were employed over many decades. All of this old <br />mining was done without any salvage of topsoil and without any regard to reclamation of the <br />site. In 1979, Timberline Enterprises erected a modern processing plant and planned on moving <br />large volumes of gravel from surface mining into the plant. In 1980, 227,000 cubic yards were <br />processed but problems kept the operation from continuing. Their 112 permit was revoked in <br />1984. The property, under the ownership of the Ducommun Business Trust, was permitted for a <br />112 gold extraction operation in the summer of 1985, under the name of Panhandle Drilling <br />Company. The CDMG assigned the operation a permit number of M -85 -029. The initial permit <br />area was 160 acres of land that was in part previously disturbed and some that was designated <br />for new disturbance. In February of 1990, the permit was transferred to Reclamation <br />Resources, Inc. which was still partially controlled by the Ducommun Business Trust. At this <br />time, the permit was also amended and the reclamation bond for the site was set at $19,068. <br />Reclamation Resources Inc. operated the operation intermittently in the early 1990's but without <br />large production. In August of 1995, Farley's Machine Shop subleased the Alma Placer to mine <br />gold. A processing plant was erected on the site and additional overburden was removed from a <br />designated area near the plant location. Some placer material was run through the plant area for <br />a few years but significant gold operation has not taken place on the site since 1997. <br />Since the existing site contains approximately 40 -45 acres of pre -law disturbance that consists <br />primarily of gravel piles left from old gold mining and since the best way to remove these piles <br />and regrade the site is to process and sell sand and gravel, a 110 operation was permitted to the <br />Ducommun Business Trust in the year 2000 as a sand and gravel operation. The CDMG <br />assigned the operation a permit number of M- 2000 -063. Bob Willits was a subcontractor to the <br />Trust and Willits began the sand and gravel operation with portable crushers, stackers, trailers, <br />etc. on a 10 acre area within the Alma Placer property. This operation has steadily operated <br />Alma Placer 1115 3 <br />