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identified as eligible for listing on the National Register near enough to the mine site to warrant <br />protection. The permit contains the results of the cultural resources survey including descriptions <br />of known cultural and historic resources that are listed, eligible for listing, and ineligible for <br />listing. The permit also contains correspondence records pertaining to determinations of <br />eligibility for listing and interested agency concurrence with those determinations. <br />Documentation in the permit meets the requirements of Rule 2.04.4. <br />Rule 2.05.6(4): Mitigation of the Impacts of Mining Operations (Protection of public parks <br />and historic places) <br />This rule requires coal mine permit applications to describe the measures to be used to minimize <br />or prevent adverse impacts to places listed on the National Register of Historic Places and to <br />obtain Division / other interested agency approval for those plans. This rule also allows the <br />Division to require the applicant to protect historic or archeological sites (those listed or eligible <br />for listing as determined by SHPO) through appropriate mitigation and treatment measures. Such <br />protective measures may be taken after permit issuance as long as they are completed before the <br />site(s) are affected by any mining operations. <br />The protected site is designated as 5MF948 and consists of pictographs and petroglyphs on a <br />Twentymile sandstone wall face. Specifically, the site contains red and yellow ocher pictographs <br />and a few petroglyphs of shields, spears, bison, mounted horsemen, and standing warriors. The <br />1980 cultural resource survey noted that the site had been desecrated by bullet holes. The bullet <br />holes were, of course, still evident. <br />Trapper Mine's permitted protection plan for site 5MF948 is primarily based on avoidance. In <br />the event mining -related disturbances were to come within 50' of the site, Trapper would <br />construct a fence to prevent unauthorized disturbance of the rock art site. Trapper's mining plan <br />will maintain an approximately 800 — 1,000' undisturbed buffer between mining operations and <br />the site. Current mining operations are approximately 2,000' away. Although not required under <br />the permit, Trapper Mining Inc. installed a seismograph at the base of the site to monitor ground <br />vibrations at this location. The seismograph was installed the day prior to this field evaluation <br />and activity data had not yet been downloaded. <br />Prior to advancing mining operations, a power line will need to be relocated. Tri-State <br />Generations and Transmission Association, Inc. owns this power line and is also a part-owner of <br />Trapper Mine. The power line relocation may happen soon, and Trapper anticipates that mining <br />could occur as early as next summer. Trapper Mining Inc. also plans to install a sedimentation <br />pond in the valley below the rock art site. This activity will not enter into the 50' radius of the <br />protected site and so will not trigger the need to construct a fence to protect Site 5MF948. <br />Trapper Mining, Inc. is successfully implementing its approved protection plan for the eligible <br />historic cultural resource. Construction of a fence has not become necessary because Trapper <br />does not intend to create disturbances within 50' of the site. Bullet holes were noted at the site <br />before Trapper's mining permit was approved. This damage occurred before the permitted <br />protection plan was put into place and was not related to mining activities. Trapper has prevented <br />adverse impacts to protected historic cultural resources in accordance with its approved plan. <br />2 1 P a a e <br />