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<br />State of Colorado <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />October 12, 1976 <br />Page Two <br />(2-c) Owner of Sub-surface Rights: <br />State of Colorado <br />State Board of Land Commissioners <br />Lessee: <br />DFC Ceramics, Inc. <br />(2-d) Map of Location and Area: <br />Attached. The 10-acre mining area is entirely within the <br />148-acre quarter section leased by DFC Ceramics, Inc. fron the <br />State of Colorado. <br />(2-e) Approximate Size of Affected Land: <br />A total of 10 acres, with actual mining to be done on only a <br />small portion of this, probably 2 or 3 acres. <br />(2-f) Type of Mining Operations: <br />The principal operation is the extraction of about 250 tons <br />per year of a siliceous clay lying about 2 to 3 feet behind <br />(west) of the steeply sloping hard sandstone faces now exposed <br />on the east side of the Golden Hogback. The outer rock face <br />is blasted and pushed away, and the clay behind is then blasted <br />to a depth of 3 to 5 feet and loaded out with a front-end loader. <br />The depth of mining is set by the thickness of the clay over <br />a second hard sandstone layer behind it. <br />Actual operations take a few weeks each year or two and the <br />area mined is about 600 to 800 square feet of face per year. No <br />new land is being stripped as the faces being mined have been <br />exposed for 30 to 40 years. <br />An additional very small operation has been carried on to <br />extract a thin (about 3 to 4 feet thick) bed of plastic clay <br />lying about 20 to 30 feet east of the exposed sandstone faces, <br />and having the same steep dip of these faces. Only about 20 to <br />30 tons per year of this clay is being mined. <br />Extraction is done by opening a short horizontal tunnel about <br />15 to 20 feet long at a point about 100 feet below the exp~~sed <br />sandstone faces. This tunnel intersects the plastic clay rein, <br />and a shrinkage stope is then driven upward toward the surface, <br />finally reaching the surface at a point on the edge of the bench <br />in front of the old exposed sandstone faces. When extraction is <br />