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<br />Daub & Associates, Inc. Page 3-4 2015 NS Mine Plan Modification <br />1/5/2016 Section 3 General Site Conditions <br />electric submersible pump is used for fluid recovery, as applicable, to avoid <br />influences on the overlying aquifers. Heat exchangers and crystallizers cool the <br />pregnant solution causing the dissolved nahcolite to precipitate as sodium <br />bicarbonate crystals. The bicarbonate crystals are de-watered, dried, classified, <br />packaged and shipped to market. After crystallization of the pregnant solution, the <br />remaining, now barren, brine is reheated and returned to the cavities forming a <br />continuous, closed circuit process. <br />NS established a mining panel concept for the development of the Boies Bed <br />resource. Mining Areas (historically referred to as “Panels”) are approximately <br />500-800 feet wide and up to 3,000 feet in length (approximately 55 acres). <br />Combinations of vertical, slant, and/or directionally-drilled horizontal production wells <br />have been employed to recover saline minerals in the panels. In addition, currently <br />unknown mining methods and technological advances may be identified and <br />employed in the future. As of 2015, solution mining is planned between cavities 1A, <br />3 and 4 where cavities 8 and 9 will be established. Continued development and <br />expansion of mine Area P2 is planned (Panel 2 in Figure 3-1). Combined recovery <br />from the P1 and P2 Areas between 2007 and 2015 is anticipated to be <br />approximately 650,000 tons. NS produced 182,798 tons of sodium bicarbonate in <br />2014 using cavities 7H, 10H, 11H, 12H, 13H, 14H, and the DVPW (Deep Vertical <br />Production Well).3 Various short shut-downs were required for equipment <br />repair/replacement. Routine boil outs were performed in 2014. <br /> 3 Revised December 2015