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Section 2.04.3 Page 12 December 2021 (RN-02)  <br />aerial photograph shows that the mine workings in this area commenced near the crop line of the <br />north fork of Tuttle Draw and extended in a southwest to northeast direction and moved from the <br />east toward the west. This photograph shows that all of the lands associated with the southern <br />portion of the permit boundary area have been disturbed by mining prior to 1973. <br /> <br />Lands with the boundaries of the old NH1 Mine, now corresponds to the previously mined <br />portion of the NHN Mine Permit Area to the north of County Road AA, show no mining <br />disturbance in this 1973 aerial photograph. However, examination of the NH1 Mine Permit maps <br />reveals that based upon the “Premining Vegetation Types” map of the NH1 mine, and the <br />Archeological Map based upon aerial mapping taken on 21 February 1980, there was one <br />excavated mine pit located in the extreme southeast corner of the site and additional surface <br />disturbance up to and including the realigned County Road AA which extended west of the <br />existing County Z50 Road. According to another aerial photograph in the PCC Nucla Mine <br />Permit based flown on 19 April 1986, the entire NH1 Mine area had been disturbed by mining <br />with the active highwall being located just to the north of the middle of the existing reclamation <br />tract. Another aerial photograph taken in 1989, shows that the western mine pit of the NH1 Mine <br />was largely backfilled and that mining on the eastern pit was nearing the extent of where the <br />current highwall subsidence highwall crack in the area where the NH1 reclamation is located. <br />Examination of a 1993 aerial photograph taken by New Horizon, shows that the entire NH1 <br />Mine had been completely backfilled to grade, topsoiled and that there was just a small amount <br />of grading work near the existing drainage channel near the center of NH1 Mine area. <br />Discussions with Mr. Ross Gubka, Chief Engineer, who started working at the New Horizon <br />Mine in 1992, confirms that New Horizon had to do a small amount of regrading shortly after he <br />arrived to establish positive flow across all of the old PCC reclamation at the NH1 Mine. All <br />reclamation efforts at this site appear to have been completed in 1993. <br /> <br />Examination of these aerial photographs clearly establishes the previous mined areas were mined <br />using a small dragline. Further discussions with Mr. Joe Garvey, reveals that the majority of the <br />mining at the NH1 site was mined using scrapers and dozers. All of this mining was conducted to <br />extract coal from the lower Dakota coal seam. The extent of coal which was removed is shown <br />on Map 2.04.3-1, New Horizon North Mine Land Use Map as those areas corresponding to the <br />areas shown as GL-REC, which pertains to those lands mined and reclaimed at the NH1 mine <br />and as 7.09 acres of GL-RECS, which pertains to those areas of regraded spoil and in some areas <br />a minor amount of subsoil was applied. Prior to the mining of the areas in the NH1 Mine and for <br />those areas mined in the equipment corridor, the land use prior to mining was grazingland, <br />dryland pasture and with minor amounts of irrigated pasture. <br /> <br />The existing land uses as they correlate to vegetation types on adjacent areas are shown on Map- <br />2.04.10-2, New Horizon North Mine Adjacent Area Vegetation Map. The vegetation types and <br />land uses on the areas adjacent to the NHN Mine site are very similar to those found within the