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<br />Page 2 <br />December 7, 1987 <br />M-87-171 Adequacy Responses <br />Steven Renner <br />Another advantage of this approach is that it keeps roadways, as much as <br />possible, on the crests of ridges and out of the valleys. This would aid <br />in the reduction of erosion damages, keeps the roadways from becoming too <br />muddy in wet weather, and keeps the road on material which exhibits <br />higher drainage rates so mudholes in shale do not develop. Of course, <br />there may be instances where crossing a drainage would be necessary. By <br />keeping the roads on high ground, such crossings would occur at locations <br />where a crossing would have minimal impact. This arrangement also keeps <br />haul trucks moving on more or less level topography rather having to go <br />up and down hills which adds to production costs due to increased <br />maintenance. <br />QUESTION 2: E7chibit C, Mining Plan Map, should show the proposed or <br />anticipated locations of any aggregate stockpiles located on site. It is <br />suggested that these stockpiles be located in the Phase I area if at all <br />possible. <br />RESPONSE: The mining plan calls for a progressive advancement of the <br />extraction area from north to south. As a rule, in these types of <br />operations, stockpiling is conducted in the vicinity of the processing <br />plant. The processing plant is usually located near the working face of <br />the extraction area. The reason for this type of procedure is economic. <br />If an operation were conducted such that stockpiling was done a <br />considerable distance from the extraction, the costs of producing the <br />product would become greater because of the greater haul distance of pit <br />run material to the plant. This is especially true in an operation of <br />this size where the round trip haul could be as great as two miles if <br />stockpiling were restricted to Phase 1. Although there is a cost in <br />periodically moving the processing plant as the extraction area advances, <br />this cost is actually considerably less than the long-term costs of <br />hauling pit run materials to a processing location outside the immediate <br />area of extraction. Such long distance haulage makes sense in some <br />situations where other products are produced from the aggregate (e.g. <br />concrete, asphalt, etc.), but when the primary product is raw aggregate <br />long distance haulage tends to reduce profits considerably. As is always <br />the case in the aggregate business, it is not the production of the <br />aggregate that causes high prices, but the cast of hauling the material <br />from the source to the final use location. Any action which can reduce <br />production haul costs ( in contrast to distribution haul costs which are <br />usually paid by the customer) provides the operator an economic <br />advantage. Although that advantage may amount to only a few pennies per <br />ton, those pennies add up rapidly and can make a difference between a <br />profitable and unprofitable operation. <br />