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With the current mining plan revised in 2003, two important benefits will be realized: <br />1. Many all old gravel piles will be mined and removed from the site. These piles have steep slopes <br />in many cases and make a relatively unusable landform. Their removal will make a flatter and more <br />easily reclaimed surface. <br />2. The piles would never revegetate, since there are no fines for plants to take root in. The gravel <br />mining and gold mining will produce fines that will be salvaged and stockpiled to reclaim old areas <br />after they are mined. New mine areas will salvage all existing topsoil. <br />The geology of the site is best described as the upper reach of the South Platte River in Pliestocene <br />glacial moraine gravels mixed with some Quaternary gravels of recent age. Sand beds and clay beds <br />are also interspersed with the alluvium. Depths of this material range from 10' to 60' within the per- <br />mit area. These gravels overlay a bedrock of pre - Cambrian schist, gneiss and intrusive granite, <br />which are also present in the mountains on both sides of the permit area. Only minor stratification <br />has been seen in the gravels since boulders of 10 " -15" size are found in some sand beds, probably <br />from glacial meltwater. The gold veins in igneous rock on the south side of Hoosier Pass and in the <br />upper basin of the South Platte drainage are the origin of the placers through thousands of years of <br />glacial activity during the last ice age and subsequent erosion. Due to the fineness of the gold at the <br />site (0.833 fine), the gold placer has been traced to gold from North Star Mountain in the Montgom- <br />ery Deadwood area in the upper reach of the basin. <br />Gold placer mining and sand & gravel mining will be addressed separately although they will be <br />part of the same permit. <br />Alma Placer 1/15 11 <br />