2005-12-16_REVISION - M1988044 - Laserfiche WebLink

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RECEIVED DEC 16 2005 Amendment 3 Overview and Structure Division of Minerals and Geology Overview: To bring the operational history up to date the following overview of the history of the operation is presented. This provides a background against which this amendment is drafted. History of operation - The Coal Creek sand resource site has been in operation since the late 1980's. In 1996 the permit was transferred to Centennial Materials which was a part of Schmidt Construction Company, headquartered in Colorado Springs. Later, during a consolidation of all of Schmidt's permits, the permit was succeeded to Schmidt Construction Company. Schmidt Construction Company is owned by Edward C. Levy Company, headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The operation has produced a variety of sand products from land leased from the Slate of Colorado. Initially, al] sand mining was in the stream corridor, but later sand mining shifted to a combination of sand mining in the stream corridor and sand mining in upland areas on the hills east of Coal Creek. Recently, sand mining in the stream corridor was completed. No further mining in the stream corridor is expected to occur as a part of this mining operation, other than possibly some minor adjustments to the stream channel. Lease extension - A few years ago exploration for additional sand resources on adjacent property began. After thorough investigation of various parcels it was found that additional sand of comparable quality to what has been mined in the past is present on the site. However, as was true in the past, these additional deposits exhibit a highly variable distribution. The exploration pits showed pockets of quality sand often separated by zones where apparently little sand exists. On the alluvial fans and higher elevation portions of the valley bottom, sand deposits tend to be more consistent, but even there a moderately high degree of variability in distribution is present. These conditions were present in the former mining. This variability creates many problems with respect to efficient extraction, but the variability does not render the site impossible io operate. In 2004, a request for a lease extension was provided to the State Board of Land Commissioners. The lease extension was approved in July 2004, and in October 2004 an operation plan was approved by the Land Board. Much of what is in this amendment is derived from that operation plan. One complication in acquiring the lease was the special classification of this land. This land is Stewardship Trust Land. This classification requires special treatment of the land when it is used. Therefore the operation plan, in many areas, must go beyond what would be normally expected of -i-