Laserfiche WebLink
shrubs. In these areas, care will be taken to avoid traveling the roads when wet, causing <br />excessive rutting. <br />Methods and Equinment for Drilling <br />Rotary drilling and coring on each site will be completed using grubber-tired truck-mounted <br />drilling rig. To aid in the protection of the hydrologic balance and protect other resources the <br />company will utilize as small a drill rig as can safely and successfully complete the job. In doing <br />so, the requirements for access road and drill site disturbances are lessened. Support equipment <br />may consist of one or two water trucks, one rig-up truck, a pipe truck, flatbed trailer, one or more <br />air compressors, and/or boosters, a supply trailer and three 4 x 4 pickups for the drill crews and <br />company representatives. This assembly is generally referred to as a "drilling unit". One drilling <br />unit is anticipated during the drilling project. <br />Water for drilling operations will either be pumped or trucked to the sites and obtained from the <br />streams feeding Deep Creek or Minnesota Creek. Pumping the water used in the drilling process, <br />if possible, will minimizE water truck traffic on the temporary access roads thereby minimizing <br />surface disturbance. The use of these other potential water sources will be approved by the <br />agency or parry owning the water rights prior to their use. In the event stock ponds are utilized, <br />minimum water levels will be established to ensure sufficient water is left for stock and wildlife. <br />Upon hole completion, one truck mounted geophysical logging unit will be used at each hole <br />location. If requested, Ark Land Company will retain in its files all drill and geophysical logs <br />and all un-analyzed drill cores for at least 1 year, and will make them available for inspection by <br />an authorized officer. <br />Estimated Size and Degth of Holes <br />Drilling conditions are variable in the exploration area. The initial diameter of each drill hole <br />will be 9 7/8 inches to allow for the placement of up to 100 feet of surface casing. This casing is <br />centered and cemented in-place from the top of the hole. Unless continuously cored from the <br />surface, a smaller (6 1/8'~ diameter rotary hole will be drilled to core point (50 ft. above the <br />uppermost mineable seam). This 6 1/8" rotary hole will be cased if necessary to maintain hole <br />integrity. The primary drilling medium will be compressed air with mist/foam injection to aid in <br />the circulation of cuttings to the surface. If air and foam prove to be an insufficient medium, or if <br />lost circulation becomes a problem, drilling mud and lost circulation materials will be used. <br />The core retrieved from the hole will be approximately 3 inches in diameter although smaller <br />diameter core (1 7/8'~ may be used in some instances. The outer diameter of the cored portion of <br />the hole will be 5 inches or less. <br />Table 1 depicts the estimated depths for each of the six proposed holes in the exploration area. <br />ll <br />