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(Page 2) • MINE ID # OR PROSPHCTING ID # M-87-038 INSPECTION DATE 02/20/98 INSPHCTOR'S INITIALS RCO This inspection was performed by the Division as part of its monitoring of 112 permits and as a pre-operation inspection of a new area proposed to be added to the permit under Amendment 3. The operator was contacted about the inspection, and a time was arranged to meet at the site. Greg Miller, representing the operator, was present throughout the inspection. The permit was identified by the required permit ID sign, which was posted at the entrance to the permit area near Buck Highway. The permit area boundary was adequately marked by features along the perimeter, including fencelines, roads, ponds and earth berms. This inspection report will be divided in two parts: the amendment pre-operation inspection and the monitoring inspection of the existing permit area. I. Pre-operation inspection of the AM-03 area. The Notice, required to be posted at the time of application pursuant to Rule 1.6.2 (1)(b), was observed at the entrance to the permit area. The area to be amended to the permit consists of two separate blocks of land. The large one is north of the permit's entrance road; the smaller one lies midway along the present western boundary of the permit near the river. The large area to be included in the permit through this amendment appears to be mainly irrigated pastureland. The area is bounded on the south by a pipe fence along the north side of the entrance road, along the east side by either the county road or the right-of-way fence, and on the west and north by barbed wire fences. The extreme east edge is not irrigated, but contains a small pond, and is vegetated by groups of mature cottonwoods and grasses and weeds. There are no buildings or roads within the new area. There is one large ponderosa pine in the north end. There appears to be overhead electric lines in or near the north boundary. The irrigation ditch and irrigation runoff, each draining toward the south, cross under the paved entrance road through culverts. There is no existing mining-related disturbance within the large amendment area. The operator indicated during the inspection that the southern central area would be mined, and some stockpiling would occur near its edges. Features and structures outside of the proposed amended area include several residential and ranch buildings, corrals, private light poles, buried telephone lines, landowner's office building, plus the county road and its right-of-way fence on the east. There may be other buried utilities along the county road, on either the west or east side. The concrete paved entrance road is to the south of the amended area; the road has a pipe fence on both its north and south sides. Pasture is to the north of the area, and pasture or range is to the south. The smaller area to be added to the permit is a narrow parcel of about one acre, situated along the present west boundary, at the west end of the unmined strip of material between the two main pits. (The main pits are the original pit/pond and the Phase 5-7 pit.) The area is grassy and shrubby, and becomes dense with bottomland woody vegetation on its west edge. It does not encroach on the delineated wetland wildlife area (an area perhaps best described in the county's permit documents several years ago).