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May 22, 2019 C-1981 -022/Elk Creek Mine LDS <br /> <br />Number of Partial Inspection this Fiscal Year: 8 <br />Number of Complete Inspections this Fiscal Year: 4 <br /> <br /> Page 2 of 12 <br /> <br /> <br />Inspection Topic Summary <br />NOTE: Y=Inspected N=Not Inspected R=Comments Noted V=Violation Issued NA=Not Applicable <br />N - Air Resource Protection <br />N - Availability of Records <br />R - Backfill & Grading <br />N - Excess Spoil and Dev. Waste <br />N - Explosives <br />N - Fish & Wildlife <br />R - Hydrologic Balance <br />N - Gen. Compliance With Mine Plan <br />N - Other <br />N - Processing Waste <br /> <br />N - Roads <br />N - Reclamation Success <br />N - Revegetation <br />N - Subsidence <br />N - Slides and Other Damage <br />N - Support Facilities On-site <br />N - Signs and Markers <br />N - Support Facilities Not On-site <br />N - Special Categories Of Mining <br />N - Topsoil <br /> <br /> <br />COMMENTS <br /> <br />This was a partial inspection by Leigh Simmons of the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety <br />(Division), conducted to evaluate the SL-1 partial Phase I bond release application. Christine Belka of the Office <br />of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, Desty Dyer of the Bureau of Land Management, and Doug <br />Smith of Oxbow Mining accompanied the inspection. The weather was clear and fine, although the ground was <br />muddy. <br />The SL-1 partial Phase I bond release application was received by the Division on February 27, 2019, and <br />found incomplete on March 5, 2019. The required items were later received and the application was subsequently <br />found complete on April 25, 2019. The application requests release for the reclamation of approximately 20.6 <br />acres, located on the Lower and Middle Pads of the Elk Creek Mine facilities area, and a portion of the East Yard <br />area. <br />The reclaimed area was inspected on foot initially, and then using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, or <br />“drone”). Equipment used for the UAV survey was a DJI Phantom 4 Pro, which was flown using the Pix4D <br />Capture app on an Apple IPad. Propeller Aeropoints were distributed around the survey area for use as ground <br />control during data processing. <br />A total of 187 overlapping images were collected during 3 flights. The raw images are being processed <br />and anlysed and wi ll be presented more fully in the Divisions’s Findings document. A thumbnail of a large 2D <br />orthoimage (created by stitching together the raw images) is presented with this report as figure 1. <br /> <br />BACKFILL and GRADING – Rule 4.14 <br />Contemporaneous Reclamation 4.14.1; Approximate Original Contour 4.14.2; Highwall Elimination 4.14.1(2)(f); <br />Steep Slopes 4.14.2, 4.27; Handling of Acid and Toxic Materials 4.14.3; Stabilization of Rills and Gullies 4.14.6: <br /> Backfilling and grading of the SL -1 bond release parcels wa s completed in 2018. Prior to backfilling and <br />grading all structures were demolished. This work was documented in regular monthly inspections beginning in <br />October 2015. <br />Visual inspection of the regraded area showed that slopes blended well with surrounding undisturbed <br />areas. There were no areas where obvious surface erosion had occured, although slopes were fairly steep in places,