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GOB VENT / DE-GAS BOREHOLES PROJECT PLAN PROJECT DESCRIPTION The proposed project consists of drilling boreholes into the gob of Longwall Panel 14 and 15 in an area which is generally located 7 to 10 miles east and northeast of Paonia, Colorado. Two pads and at a minimum six directionally drilled boreholes will be located in Sections 26 and 27, of T.13S. R.90W. 6'" Principle Meridian, Gunnison County, Colorado. The borehole locations were previously used as pads for coal exploration holes 96-27-1 (SOM 123, S) and RAV-10, respectively. The proposed boreholes aze within the current permitted coal mining areas on Federal Coal Leases COC-6447 and C-1362 held by Arch Coal Inc. The Gob Vent / De-Gas Borehole Surface Map at a scale of 1" = 2000' depicts the general locations of the holes and existing roads relevant to the mine permit and lease boundaries. SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY • The elevation of the proposed borehole locations range from 7800 fr. for drill hole pad 96-27-1 (SOM 123 (S)) and 8500 fr. for the RAV-10 drill hole pad, respectively, on and near West Flat Iron Mesa in Sections 26 and 27. The terrain is comprised of steep slopes and mesa tops formed within the Wasatch and Mesa Verde Formations and the colluvium and alluvium layers of the slope debris. The principle drainages in this area are Deep Creek, which flow northeast into Ravens Creek and thence into the North Fork of the Gunnison River and Sylvester Gulch that also flows northwazd into the North Fork of the Gruutison. The water courses on West Flat Iron Mesa are intermittent in nature and do not flow year round. GEOLOGY The proposed Gob Vent / De-Gas Boreholes would be drilled along the southeastern edge of the Piceance Basin within the Somerset Coal Field, occurring on the Somerset U.S.G.S. 7 I/2 minute quadrangle map. Initial geological work in this azea was done by W. T. Lee (1912) who reported his findings in "Coal Fields of Grand Mesa and the West elk Mountains, Colorado" (USGS Bulletin 510). Later in 1948, Ward H. Johnson published a USGS map of the Paonia Coal Field incorporating drill hole data generated through a USGS and U.S. Bureau of Mines • drilling program. The following year Johnson further described the geology of the Minnesota Creek azea in USBM Technical Paper 721. More recently, in 1989, C. R.