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Additional Sheet <br />2015 Annual Report <br />Coal Creek Resources <br />M- 1988 -044 <br />Schmidt Construction Company <br />Anniversary Date: March 28 <br />Differences in Acreages from Previous Reports: The acreages reported this year are very different from <br />the last many years of annual reports. This change was due to major changes in the configuration of the permit <br />in the last year. Large amounts of acreage were removed from the lease and subsequently removed from the <br />permit via TR -07. Thus, the permit area is much, much smaller. Furthermore, only acreages that are currently <br />affected are reported whereas previously acreage of affected land in all categories was reported to maintain a <br />continuous record that was consistent with the lease requirements. As those requirements were removed in the <br />revised lease the acreage reported in these annual reports can include only currently affected land. <br />Status of 2014 Reclamation Area: Inspection in mid -March showed that the seeding that occurred last <br />summer was very successful. Ecologically, it is interesting to note that in this seeding which occurred in the <br />middle of the warm season grass growth period resulted in a predominant germination of mostly the warm <br />season grasses or those grasses that would have normally dropped their seed by that time and would be <br />germinating in a non - reclamation environment. Of particular note was abundant germination of blue grama, <br />little bluestem, and the needlegrasses. This is important in that those species are important ingredients in the <br />Piedmont Grassland form that occurs in this area. In the past, spring seeding or wet season seeding primarily <br />brought forth the more cool season grasses with the warm season grasses appearing later. It will be interesting <br />to see if this spring the cool season grasses planted last year appear after the warm season grasses are already <br />doing well. What effect this shifting of the sequence of germination will have on the final vegetation established <br />by using the same seed mixture is unknown, but by later summer at least some preliminary indications of <br />similarities and differences may be apparent. If, in fact, seeding in the warm season grass peak growing period <br />results in a closer approximation to the natural grasslands then future seeding in management of the Lowry <br />Range may want to apply those findings. However, it will also be necessary to recognize that seeding at that <br />time carries considerable risk as it would only work well if the monsoon moisture during those periods arrives in <br />normal amounts. If it does not arrive then seeding at that time could well result in a major failure of an <br />expensive seeding project. <br />Notes on Mining: Recent mining activity found excellent sand along the eastern border of the mining area <br />and that continued for a couple of hundred feet and then the quality declined rapidly. The mining will now <br />return to the more upland area at the crest of the hill immediately west of this eastern border area. At some <br />point mining from the hill crest eastward will once again enter that eastern border area and determine whether <br />the decline in sand quality in that area is just a local issue or is more widespread along the eastern border. As <br />these deposits are formed from multiple layers of meandering streams wide variability is expected. <br />By the time next March comes around it appears that about half of the total remaining mining area will <br />have been affected, but only about half of that affected land will have been mined. Therefore, roughly a fourth <br />of the remaining mining area will have been mined since mining entered into the land that was added with the <br />big lease amendment. In effect then, about three- fourths of the remaining mining land after the 2014 lease <br />change will be left to be mined over the next four years. <br />Some backfilling and backfill/grading has been done on the southern portions of the mining pit. The <br />large overburden stockpile is declining in size as material is removed for backfilling. New overburden stockpiles <br />will likely be established closer to the current mining areas to reduce future reclamation costs. <br />Schmidt Construction 2015 Annual Report M- 1988 -044 Coal Creek Resources Page 1 of 2 <br />