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5. On June 18, 2019, the Division responded to Operator's notice and <br />requested additional information regarding its plan to commence operations, <br />including details regarding environmental protection facilities that needed to be <br />completed prior to removing any material from underground workings and other <br />information about the proposed operations and impacts to the mine pool. The <br />Division's letter also informed Operator that work required under the previously <br />approved TR-04 would need to be completed prior to any operations and that any <br />use or testing of ablation milling processes, on or off the site, was mining activity <br />that would need to be approved and permitted. <br />6. Operator responded to the Division in a letter dated August 15, 2019, <br />expanding the mines to include the Topaz and West Sunday Mines, and detailing <br />work that had already been done at the Sunday Mine Complex. The letter also <br />described actions Operator intended to take, including mining up to 100 tons of ore <br />for testing that would be stored underground until a testing facility had been <br />permitted. The letter also provided more details on Operator's construction of <br />environmental protection facilities, potential impacts to the mine pools, and about <br />operator's "bulk sampling project" which was intended to transport and test twenty <br />tons of ore and up to eighty more tons of ore taken from potential pods of "high- <br />grade vanadium" to produce "a concentrate that can be shipped to potential buyers <br />for further testing." <br />7. The Division responded to Operator in a letter dated September 18, <br />2019, acknowledging that Operator was seeking to change the status of all five <br />mines in the Sunday Mine Complex to active. The Division informed Operator that, <br />based on inspections and Operator's letters, it did not consider the mines in the <br />Sunday Mine Complex to be active. In particular, the Division deemed the activity <br />observed and described in Operator's communications to be "prospecting" and <br />primarily "investigatory in nature." The Division informed Operator that without <br />substantial development or production, the current temporary cessation period for <br />all of the permits would expire on April 19, 2020. The Division also informed <br />Operator that the Colorado Court of Appeals opinion in INFORM v. Colo. Mined <br />Land Reclamation Board, 2019 COA 114, may impact the status of the mines in the <br />Sunday Mine Complex. <br />8. In a letter dated January 17. 2020, Operator informed the Division <br />that it would be constructing three ore pads at the Sunday Mine Complex in <br />accordance with the environmental protection plan. Operator noted that the <br />Sunday, St. Jude, and West Sunday Mines were associated with the construction. <br />Pinon Ridge Mining, LLC <br />Sunday Mine Complex, file numbers M-1978-039 (St. Jude Mine), M-1981-021 (West <br />Sunday Mine), M-1980-055HR (Topaz Mine), M-1977-285 (Sunday Mine), M-1977- <br />416 (Carnation Mine). 2 <br />