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Bureau of Land Management Environmental Assessment <br /> Royal Gorge Field Office DOI-BLM-CO-F020-2020-0036 EA <br /> 3. ISSUE ANALYSIS <br /> 3.1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT AREA <br /> The proposed action area is located less than 1.0 mile north of Silver Cliff, Colorado. The <br /> topographic relief within the proposed project area is low ranging from 8,000 to 8,120 feet in <br /> elevation and is located down gradient from any major surface water resources. Vegetation has <br /> been classified by the 2004 Colorado Gap as Southern Rocky Mountain Montane-Subalpine <br /> Grassland and Southern Rocky Mountain Pinyon-Juniper Woodland. Geologically,the action <br /> area primarily consists of a Tertiary silica-rich latitic lava with a massive interstitial volcanic <br /> glass deposit known as obsidian. This area is primarily dominated by active and historic mining <br /> operations with sparsely populated rangelands and rural farming properties. <br /> 3.2. PAST, PRESENT AND REASONABLY FORESEEABLE FUTURE <br /> ACTIONS <br /> POTENTIAL FUTURE RESERVES <br /> As demand increases and mining progresses further north,reserves would continually be <br /> depleted. Presently,the maximum extent of the obsidian deposit is unknown;therefore, as the <br /> current reserves would be exhausted, the operator would simultaneously conduct exploration <br /> activities to determine the potential obsidian reserve north of the proposed action area. If the <br /> exploration datum yields favorable results, the operator plans to propose a further expansion of <br /> the mining operation to the potential reserves boundary(Figure 7). This boundary includes an <br /> additional 117.11 acres, which includes approximately 69.12 acres of interspersed BLM <br /> managed lands. As these exploration efforts have yet to be conducted,the potential reserves <br /> boundary has not been refined; however,all aspects of future operations would be anticipated to <br /> replicate the plans outlined above. <br /> This area has been proposed within this EA to determine a preliminary NEPA analysis of the <br /> potential reserves' boundary. The operator would coordinate with BLM and other agencies once <br /> a formal reserves boundary could be concluded. BLM would then conduct a further NEPA <br /> action, as needed. <br /> 25 <br />