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MINE ID # OR PROSPECTING ID #: nn-iea~-nRa INSPECTION DATE: Apr~~ 9 ~nn~ INSPECTOR=S INITIALS: A IW OBSERVATIONS This inspection was conducted by Tony Waldron and Deb Gonima of the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS) in response to a complaint letter received on April 3, 2007. The complaint alleged that at some point mining operations at this site had encroached upon private property excavating a hillside approximately 30-50 feet beyond the boundaries of the mining property and onto lot 556, VOTS Filing 1 1 and also possibly onto lots 551-562 of the same filing. The Snowstorm Placer is located approximately 3 miles north of Fairplay, Colorado along the east side of Colorado State Highway 9. The site is located on a glacial outwash lateral moraine. The upper part of this feature was placer mined for gold using a floating dredge, probably in the 1930's. The remnants of this activity are numerous piles of un-organized and un-sorted gravel, which is the waste product generated during placer mining. The lower part of the moraine has been mined both historically for gold and more recently for both gold and gravel. Once again there are large areas of washed gravels resulting from the placer operations. However, there are also areas recently excavated solely for the gravel. Although these materials have been screened, washed and the fines processed for the gold, the main end product was the gravel. More recently, Everist Materials, LLC has made arrangements to lease the entire site and conduct gravel mining operations under the existing permit. They submitted a technical revision to our office to allow a portable asphalt plant and a portable concrete batch plant to be placed in the permitted area. This revision was submitted on February 12, 2007 and approved on March 12, 2007. They have also committed to submitting a future amendment which will revise the presently approved permit application to provide a more logical mining and reclamation plan for the entire property. Since this will be an amendment, there will be a full public comment period associated with its submittal. With respect to the complaint letter, this inspection focused on the boundaries of the approved permit area and the affected areas contained within this permit area. Specifically, the eastern boundary of the permit area was carefully inspected to determine it mining had occurred outside of the approved permit area as alleged in the complaint letter. The location of the permit boundary had been the subject of a recent inspection that resulted in the operator at that time conducting a property survey to clearly delineate the permit area. During this inspection, many survey monuments were observed along the eastern boundary of the permit area which is also the western boundary of the VOTS Filing 1 l . Since it was difficult to ascertain which monuments belonged to which survey, the operator is being required to re-survey their area and clearly mark the permit boundary with monuments or other markers that are clearly visible and adequate to delineate the permit area boundaries. This will also be required of the affected area that is included within the permit area. This is being cited as a problem on page five of this report along with the corrective actions and dates by which it must be accomplished. As far as the allegation that mining has encroached upon the adjacent property, it does appear that mining or some type of excavation has occurred along the common boundary between the Snowstorm and the VOTS Filing 1 1, probably in the identified lots, however, it is clear that this activity did not occur recently as explained below. The common boundary between these properties is approximately 4000 feet long. The area in question is approximately 1800 feet south of the northeast corner of the Snowstorm property. In this area, a deep excavation occurred right on the property boundary approximately 300-500 feet in length and 100 feet wide creating a small valley with steep sides both east and west of the valley. The valley bottom is where the present property boundary is located. The cut slopes on both sides are steep and exhibit raveling and erosion. However, it is clear that this excavation did not occur recently and probably existed prior to the