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INTRODUCTION <br />The Alma Placer site is located immediately east of the town of Alma in Park County and was initially <br />mined for placer gold by many different methods dating back to the 1870's. The first recorded work at <br />the site took place on the banks of the South Platte in 1872. Sluicing, hydraulicking, tunneling and other <br />methods were employed over many decades. All of this old mining was done without any salvage of <br />topsoil and without any regard to reclamation of the site. In 1979, Timberline Enterprises erected a <br />modern processing plant and planned on moving large volumes of gravel from surface mining into the <br />plant. In 1980, 227,000 cubic yards were processed but problems kept the operation from continuing. <br />Their 112 permit was revoked in 1984. The property, under the ownership of the Ducommun Business <br />Trust, was permitted for a 112 gold extraction operation in the summer of 1985, under the name of <br />Panhandle Drilling Company. The CDMG assigned the operation a permit number of M -85 -029. The <br />initial permit area was 160 acres of land that was in part previously disturbed and some that was <br />designated 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 time, the <br />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 large <br />production. In August of 1995, Farley's Machine Shop subleased the Alma Placer to mine gold. A <br />processing plant was erected on the site and additional overburden was removed from a designated area <br />near the plant location. Some placer material was run through the plant area for a few years but <br />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 primarily <br />of gravel piles left from old gold mining and since the best way to remove these piles and regrade the <br />site is to process and sell sand and gravel, a 110 operation was permitted to the Ducommun Business <br />Trust in the year 2000 as a sand and gravel operation. The CDMG assigned the operation a permit number <br />of M- 2000 -063. Bob Willits was a subcontractor to the Trust and Willits began the sand and gravel <br />operation with portable crushers, stackers, trailers, etc. on a 10 acre area within the Alma Placer property. <br />This operation has steadily operated since the summer of 2000 and as of April 2003, was in need of <br />expanding into other areas of the Alma Placer property. By processing the old piles, the site can be <br />Alma Place Mine 01/15 1 <br />