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<br />WRITTEN DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT <br />Background <br />American Gypsum Company owns and operates a wallboard manufacturing <br />facility located at 740 Hy #6, Gypsum, Colorado. The gypsum rock needed in the <br />manufacturing process is mined and shipped from the existing permitted mining <br />operation north of the Town of Gypsum. This application represents a project that will <br />provide for transition of mining operations from the existing mine site to a site <br />approximately 0.75 miles northeast of the existing operation. The project requires a Mine <br />Plan Amendment with the Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) and <br />Bureau of Land Management (BLM}, and is therefore referred to as the "amended site" <br />or "amended area" throughout this application. <br />Vicinity maps Exhibit B-1 and Exhibit B-3 are attached for site reference. The <br />operational transition described in this project will need to take place before gypsum ore <br />reserves become depleted at the existing site. <br />The amended site was identified through exploration drilling during 1997 and <br />1998. A sizable gypsum ore body was delineated. Drilling has indicated a deposit of high <br />purity and uniform gypsum that represents an additional 20-year supply of gypsum for <br />wallboard production. The new deposit is contained in mining claims held by American <br />Gypsum Company and is located directly across an unnamed drainage northeast of <br />existing operations. <br />As a matter of clarification here, a permit application for this project was <br />submitted in October 2000. Eagla County put that application on hold while permitting <br />was completed with the BLM and DMG. Permitting with those two agencies has since <br />been completed. <br />The 2000 application was submitted under the applicant name of Centex Eagle <br />Gypsum Company, LLC (Centex). Since that time the company name has been changed <br />to American Gypsum Company but there have been no changes in actual company <br />ownership. Some of the reference material in this updated application still refers to the <br />Centex name but all applicable permitting documentation now reflects the American <br />Gypsum name change. <br />Nothing has changed in the technical project scope of the preliminary application, <br />but project timing as been pushed forward. At the time of the application (2000) drill hole <br />data indicated a possible 10-year ore reserve at the current site. Since that time <br />unanticipated geologic conditions have been encountered. These conditions have, in <br />effect, reduced the amount of available gypsum and operational life at the current site by <br />at least three years. <br />z <br />