2005-10-24_REVISION - M1987028 - Laserfiche WebLink

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EXHIBIT D MINING PLAN Site History and Geologic Setting The Monazch Mining District is a historic mining azea located along the Continental Divide within the southern reaches of Sawatch Range in Chaffee County, Colorado. Vaned and numerous underground and surface mine operations were initiated in the late 1800's for precious metals and industrial minerals to supplement the steel industry, supported by narrow gauge railroads followed by standazd gauge rail systems through the eazly 1900's and continuing until the eazly 1980's. Industrial mineral operations, namely pure calcium carbonate limestone and mazbles, were mined in the Taylor Gulch azea both surface and underground starring in the late 1800's. Numerous underground metal mining operations were active in the eazly 1900's through the 1950's. At least thirty underground mine plays and waste piles can be seen on the slopes above and below the elevation of the Lilly Mines location. The Taylor Gulch basin, at an elevation of between 10500'-12800', is a primary contact azea of Precambrian granite and granite gneiss complex with Paleozoic sediments of carbonate rock type. Taylor Gulch drainage basically sepazates the granite/granite gneiss bedrock east of the drainage channel from steeply dipping (neazly vertical) meta-sediments outcropping west of the Taylor Gulch drainage. The azea has experienced mountain building uplift and Tertiary aged injection of intrusives including andesite and rhyolite dykes and sills into the metamorphosed sequence of mazble, quartzite, and slate. The siliceous and cazbonate meta-sediments as well as the granite gneiss sequence have been intruded by appazently more than one event resulting in the deposition of mafic-rich andesite and basalt dykes with associated iron and manganese ores deposited in localized areas {now evident by the numerous muckpiles of oxidized rock peppering the slopes in Taylor Gulch). The Lilly Mines were developed from existing patented mining claims (underground) located in the late 1800's, but were not mined from the surface until the late 1980's, facilitated by a type 110 reclamation permit approved by the MLRB in 1987. The original 4 acre permit area was mined well beyond its boundaries by 2004, with a DMG GPS survey showing app. 20 acres of surface disturbance. In late 2004, the MLRB ordered the operator to increase the reclamation bond on the disturbed land to reflect current disturbance levels and develop a permit amendment to address current and future mining activities. This pemut amendment application is intended to address present (short term) and future (long range) planning for mining and reclamation at the site. The Lilly Mines mazble deposit is located within a singulaz bed of steeply dipping metamorphic rock type of Pennsylvanian age. Measurements of strike of the mazble bed vary within a few degrees of N15E and dip eastwazd app. 75 degrees. The white mazble bed measures 115 feet at its thickness point available at surface outcrop. The mazble is white, macro-crystalline medium hard calcium cazbonate, portraying a primary joint habit paralleling the bedding plane. Primary joint field measurements vary from NSE to N18E, dipping east at 75-88 degrees. Primary jointing controls the attitude of the highwall 4