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May 3, 2021 C-1981-022/Elk Creek Mine LDS <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 />N - Backfill & Grading <br />R - Excess Spoil and Dev. Waste <br />N - Explosives <br />N - Fish & Wildlife <br />N - Hydrologic Balance <br />N - Gen. Compliance With Mine Plan <br />N - Other <br />N - Processing Waste <br />N - Roads <br />R - Reclamation Success <br />R - Revegetation <br />N - Subsidence <br />N - Slides and Other Damage <br />R - 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 />COMMENTS <br />This was a partial inspection by Leigh Simmons of the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (Division). <br />The weather was clear, dry and warm during the inspection, but there had been heavy rain the day before. The <br />status of the Elk Creek Mine is "active" however no coal is being mined and the only activity since the last <br />inspection was site maintenance. <br />The focus of this inspection was on the sites included in the SL-5 Partial Phase III bond release application. Doug <br />Smith of Oxbow Mining, LLC. (Oxbow) accompanied the inspection throughout; and Dan McKinnon of the <br />Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), Desty Dyer of the Bureau of Land <br />Management, Uncompahgre Field Office (BLM), and Dan Gray of the US Forest Service, Paonia Ranger District <br />(USFS) each accompanied the inspection at times. <br />Digitzed maps from the Permit Application Packet (PAP) were used in the field. The maps and additional layers of <br />digitized features were added to an ArcGIS web map which was viewed using the Esri Collector app running on a <br />Samsung Galaxy S10e cell phone. The phone's internal GPS receiver allowed the verification (and correction if <br />necessary) of feature locations, and for the inspector to record attributes and photographs associated with each <br />digitized feature. The field data was collected offline then synced to the web map (see figures 1 and 2) and was <br />later analysed further in the office. Table 1 is populated with data compiled from the geodatabase displayed in the <br />web map, although not all of the attribute fields are shown. <br />In the interests of clarity, given the large number of discrete sites inspected, comments in this inspection report are <br />grouped under headings related to the sites inspected, rather than the rules that the comments relate to. <br />Photographs showing a representative sample of the sites inspected are included following table 1. <br />Observations pertaining to the following rules were made during the inspection: <br />EXCESS SPOIL and DEVELOPMENT WASTE — Rule 4.09 <br />Placement; Drainage Control; Surface Stabilization: <br />Number of Partial Inspection this Fiscal Year: 9 <br />Number of Complete Inspections this Fiscal Year: 3 <br />Page 2 of 27 <br />