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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY <br />Vegetation data were collected in 2013 on the reference and reclaimed areas located at the <br />Southfield Mine and Southfield Loadout areas for Phase III revegetation monitoring purposes to <br />determine if the final revegetation success criteria had been satisfied for these areas. The existing <br />Permit sections and recently approved Technical Revisions Nos. 39 and 45, which added a new <br />Portal Reference Area and clarified how the three Southfield Mine reclaimed and reference areas <br />would be combined through means of a weighted average process and by comparing the Southfield <br />Loadout reclaimed and references areas individually, were evaluated for their revegetation success. <br />The weighted average allowable plant cover on the three reclaimed areas at the Southfield Mine <br />was 44.59% compared with a weighed average allowable plant cover of 27.44% for the three <br />reference areas, demonstrating that allowable plant cover satisfied the currently approved plant <br />cover requirements. At the Southfield Loadout site, the allowable plant cover was 26% on the <br />reclaimed areas and 21% on the reference area, again demonstrating that the revegetation success <br />standard for allowable plant cover was achieved on this site also. <br />The weighted average forage production on the three reclaimed areas at the Southfield Mine area <br />was 823.2 pounds per acre which exceeded the weighed average forage production of 232.0 pounds <br />per acre for the three reference areas, demonstrating that the reclaimed forage production satisfied <br />the currently approved forage production requirements. At the Southfield Loadout site, forage <br />production on the reclaimed areas averaged 456.5 pounds per acre as compared to 298.3 pounds per <br />acre obtained from the reference area. <br />Across all four reclaimed areas located at the Southfield Mine and Southfield Loadout, the four <br />dominant warm season species standard of being less than 80% was satisfied. The warm season <br />grass species diversity index value on these same four reclaimed areas, was found to be higher than <br />that associated with the four undisturbed reference areas, thus the warm season grass species <br />diversity revegetation success standard was satisfied on all areas. <br />The weighted average shrub density value for the two reclaimed areas located at the Southfield <br />Mine, as well as the one reclaimed area at the Southfield Loadout were all found to be higher than <br />the woody plant density revegetation success standards approved in connection with TR -45. <br />These results for allowable plant cover, forage production, warm season grass species diversity and <br />shrub density document that for the 2013 reclamation monitoring results, that the approved <br />revegetation success standards for the first year Phase III bond release monitoring have been <br />satisfied. <br />INTRODUCTION <br />At the request of Mr. George V. Patterson, General Mine Manager of the Energy Fuels Coal Inc. <br />(EFCI), Southfield Mine, reclaimed and reference areas located at the Southfield Mine and <br />Southfield Loadout areas were sampled for Phase III final bond release in 2013. The Southfield <br />Mine is located approximately eight mines to the south of Florence, Fremont County, Colorado and <br />the Southfield Loadout is located approximately two miles west of Florence. This bond release <br />