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Benson Brothers Red Shale Pit <br />DMG 112 Application <br />Exhibit D - Minin¢ Plan <br />This mining permit is for a red shale mine of 29.5 permitted acres owned by Benson Brothers. Red <br />Shale is a decorative rock product. The site is located in Red Canyon, east of Wazd Creek Road and <br />adjacent to the south boundary the Red Canyon Coal Mine property. The Belden Red Shale Pit #1 is <br />adjacent to the northwest corner of the property. Current use of the property is undeveloped rangeland. <br />Surrounding land is pinion, juniper, sage rangeland with some pastureland in flatter areas to the south <br />and west were there aze some small ranches. There are at least six old coal mines within one mile of <br />the property. <br />The material to be mined consists of shale that has been baked to a red color from coal fires in <br />underlying coal seems. The material exists on this site in rock outcrops or as bedrock covered with <br />very thin soils of the Beemon-Absazokee Association on ridges and mountain side-slopes. The <br />desirably colored material appears in a band about 500 feet wide on the north slope of the east-west <br />trending ridge. The red shale is inter-bedded with sandstone and off-color shale that will create waste <br />rock and overburden to be used as backfill to create final reclaimed slopes. Mazketable shale exists in <br />layers of 10 to 50 feet thick based on visual evidence from the adjacent Belden Red Shale Pit. <br />The operation will begin with the building of a mine access road off of the Red Canyon Mine road <br />directly across from the Belden Red Shale Pit, up to an existing track on the east-west trending ridge <br />on the south half of the property. A process and stockpile area will be established in the relatively flat <br />azea at the base of this ridge. Vegetation will be removed and used to make brush piles for wildlife <br />habitat. Topsoil will be removed from approximately 3 acres and stockpiled along the northwest side <br />of the process azea. The azea will then be leveled to accommodate process equipment and stockpiles. <br />Processed material will be stockpiled along the west side of the process azea and will help serve as a <br />visual, dust, and noise barrier from neighbors to the west. <br />Mining operations will include mining, crushing, screening and trucking. Mining operations will begin <br />by improving a short access road to an existing excavation in red shale from a previous landowner and <br />clearing vegetation from there down the north slope of the east-west trending ridge south of the process <br />area. Topsoil and overburden from excavations will be stockpiled on the northwest side of the process <br />area. Dozers and front-end loaders will be used to push material from the existing exposure of shale, <br />down the slope to the process area As mining progresses into the ridge, a series of slopes and benches <br />will be created in the mining area. Mining near the tap of the ridge will be accomplished using atrack- <br />hoe to pull the material down to the north side of the ridge and prevent any material from falling down <br />the south side of the ridge. A silt fence will also be erected along the southern boundary to minimize <br />the effects of stormwater runoff and small rocks while working neaz the top of the ridge. A copy of an <br />analysis of the safety and stability of the southern slope while working neaz the ridge top was <br />performed by Ute Engineering & Surveying Co. and is attached to this section. <br />Crushed material will be trucked off site to the operator's main base in Austin or for delivery to <br />customers. The applicant anticipates hauling about five tractor-trailer loads a day during normal <br />business hours of 7:00 am to 5:30 pm during non- winter months. Shorter hours and no-haul days due <br />to weather aze anticipated in winter months. <br />Mined area will be backfilled and graded using overburden and waste rock obtained as the excavation <br />moves up to the ridge and to the south. The applicant will aggressively employ concurrent reclamation <br />of depleted aeeas to maintain approximately 3 acres of disturbance in the process azea and 3 acres of <br />un-reclaimed disturbance in the active mining azea in accordance with the Delta County Specific <br />Development Agreement SD OS-001, paragraph 9, copy attached in Exhibit M, The southern limits of <br />