Laserfiche WebLink
January 9, 2001 <br />Basin Resources, Inc. (BRI) <br />3800 County Road 63.9 <br />Trinidad, CO 81082 <br />Golden Eagle Mine <br />Permit No. C-013-81 <br />Phase II Bond Release Inspection <br />October 12, 2000 <br />Inspection Participants: <br />Ron Thompson, BRI <br />Kent Gorham, Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) <br />Henry Austin, Office of Surface Mining (OSM) <br />I participated in a Phase II bond release inspection of the above mine on October 12, 2000. <br />Weather conditions were fair and dry, with dry ground conditions observed throughout the mine. <br />Mr. Gorham began the inspection by walking the reclaimed areas which represent the former <br />mine facilities area, mine waste development pile, and topsoil stockpile areas. Vegetation is well <br />established on these areas and no excessive erosion was evident. Soil erosion control has been <br />previously demonstrated by the permittee and approved by DMG for all the reclaimed areas, and <br />sediment control structures have been removed. Topsoil depths have been replaced as approved <br />in the reclamation plan and previously confirmed by DMG. Successful establishment of <br />vegetation is demonstrated in [he bond release application at Appendix A. <br />We next inspected a sample of reclaimed drill and borehole locations and reclaimed former fan <br />locations. These areas also demonstrate erosional stability and vegetation establishment, and <br />excessive erosion was not evident on the areas inspected. <br />The bond release application is dated August 25, 2000, and represents a total of 51.5 acres. The <br />permittee has demonstrated compliance with the public notice and landowner notil ication <br />requirements of Colorado Rule 3.03. Two landowners have objected to the bond release request. <br />The reclaimed Northwest ventilation shaft was the subject of one landowner complaint. This <br />reclaimed area has subsequently been removed from this release request by the permittee, and is <br />not subject to this bond release request. The second landowner has complained of what appears <br />to be vegetation die back on his property. This property is not located on the proposed release <br />area. It has been undermined, and this area as well as a few other small surface areas close by <br />suffered vegetation die back. The permittee has established a monitoring network on these <br />areas to monitor natural gas. The cause of the vegetation die back is unknown. There has been <br />recent commercial gas extraction activity here. A commercial gas well site was being reclaimed <br />during our inspection on this area. We inspected the Northwest ventilation fan area noted above, <br />and [his concluded [he field inspection. <br />