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Colowyo C-1981-019 25 July 2006 Pg 5/7 Topsoil: -The operator is finishing the stripping topsoil in advance of the West Pit. The plan for this year is to strip the remaining topsoil in the West Pit (approximately 300,000 bcy). The contractor working on the topsoil is Bower Brothers. The contractor was working on the southern-most end of the stripping area and Tony Tennyson thought the topsoil stripping would be complete that afternoon (26 July 2006). The topsoil is being picked up with an excavator (CAT 385) and hauled to the topsoil stockpile at the northeast edge of the Section 16 Pit with 60-ton trucks (CAT 773's). The contractor appears to be removing all of the topsoil, which is more than 25 feet deep in some places. Several small topsoil "islands" have been left to verify topsoil removal. These islands are approximately o square foot. There will be several exemption areas on the west slope due to rocky conditions and the absence of topsoil. The effected areas appear to be on the north half of the stripping area. The operator surveyed in the exemption areas and will supply the Division with a map and include the areas in the 2006 Annual Reclamation Report. The topsoil on the south half of this slope has been removed. -The Section 16 topsoil stockpile where the current topsoil removal is being placed appeared to be stable. The perimeter ditch around the pile appeared to be in good condition. - There are still numerous piles of topsoil that need to be spread on the East Pit reclamation. There appear to be approximately 50 truckloads of soil to be replaced. This will be spread and seeded this fall. General Mine Plan Compliance: -The operator was currently removing overburden from the B-Seam in the West Pit with the 102 dragline. The 103 dragline was not operating at the time of the inspection. The boom was off and the operator was replacing cables and doing other maintenance. The operator was shooting for the work to be completed by Friday, 28 July 2006. - The truck and shovel operation was currently working on removing the A-Seam overburden of the West Pit. - The operator was drilling and loading explosives in the X-Seam overburden of the West Pit. -The Colowyo Mine has also contracted the Bower Brothers to remove approximately 1.7 million bcy of overburden from the West Pit where they are removing topsoil. They were removing overburden on the west side of South Taylor Draw and creating a bench and highwall for the highwall miner. They were removing shot overburden and hauling it approximately 100 feet and end dumping it to create the bench necessary for the highwall miner. The Bower Brothers operation is exposing the E-Seam. Once they are finished with the west side of the draw they will move to the east side of the draw and make another bench and highwall for E- Seam highwall mining. The overburden that is not needed for the benches for the highwall miner will be placed at the northwest side of the Section 16 Pit for the eventual final reclamation of this pit. The Bower Brothers are using a CAT 3856 excavator to load CAT 773E haul trucks. It is taking 5 loader passes per truck. -The mining at the Colowyo Mine appears to be progressing as discussed and approved in the PAP.