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No mining activity has occurred at Topaz mine or the Carnation mine. The <br />Carnation mine only exists to provide proper ventilation to the other mines. <br />14. Intervenors presented testimony regarding their position that <br />Operator's work at the Sunday Mine Complex was not "production" under the Act <br />and was development. Intervenors also pointed to Operator's filings with the U.S. <br />Securities and Exchange Commission that stated it had no reserves and no saleable <br />reserves. Intervenors also pointed to filings made with the federal Mine Safety and <br />Health Administration ("MSHA') regarding work Operator had done at the Sunday <br />Mine Complex that Intervenors argued demonstrated no underground production <br />had occurred. <br />15. At the hearing, Operator argued that the Division's definition of <br />"Production" had been shifted away from -its historical view that tied production to <br />mining activity. Operator presented testimony that it had been conducting work at <br />the Sunday Mine Complex including improving buildings, operating vents and <br />ventilating the mines, setting up electricity and bringing in water, conducting <br />detailed sampling and testing to put a mining plan together, covering low-grade <br />stockpiles, and mining about 200 tons of ore and stockpiling it inside the mines. <br />Operator argued that these activities were active mining. <br />16. Operator also presented testimony that its extraction activities were <br />not "prospecting" because they had used an XRF machine to locate ore bodies and <br />drilled to locate the ore they knew was there. Operator stated that they several <br />full-time workers at the mine, had mined twelve areas and stockpiled that ore, and <br />were mining rather than prospecting. Operator also presented testimony that the <br />MSHA reports Intervenors had referenced reflected just the underground <br />supervision hours and did not include the actual underground hours of Operator's <br />contractors. Accounting for both sources of hours, Operator stated that 3,000 hours <br />of underground work had been done. <br />17. The Board also heard public comment at the hearing from Paul Szlagi <br />of the Western Small Miners Association. Mr. Szlagi stated that the Colorado Court <br />of Appeals had not defined "production" in the INFORM v. Colo. Mined Land <br />Reclamation Board, 2019 COA 114, opinion, and that the Division should continue <br />working with industry to define production in a rulemaking to eliminate the <br />substantial uncertainty for mining operations. <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). 4 <br />