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<br />EXPLORATION DRILLING PROJECT PLAN <br />PROTECT DESCRIPTION <br />The proposed project consists of drilling an Exploration Drill hole, 2001-11-1 (EEE), in <br />Section 11 of T.13S., R.90W., 6`h Principal Meridian, Gunnison County, Colorado. The <br />cultural and biological assessments aze not completed as of yet, but will be included with <br />this revision once they are completed. The proposed exploration hole is within the <br />current permitted coal mining area on Federal Coal Lease COC-56447, held by Arch <br />Coal, Inc. The EEE Access Map at a scale of 1" = 400' depicts the general locations of <br />the hole, existing roads, and road re-alignments relevant to the mine permit and lease <br />boundaries. Mountain Coal Company has access to the area through apre-approved <br />gated area at mile marker 21 of Highway 133. <br />SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY <br />The elevation of the proposed Exploration Drill Pad ranges from 6,360 ft. to 6,400 fr., <br />while the elevation of the proposed access ranges from 6,180 ft. at Highway 133 to 6,360 <br />fr. at the drill hole pad EEE. The terrain is comprised of moderate slopes formed within <br />the Wasatch and Mesa Verde Formations and the colluvium and alluvium layers of the <br />slope debris. Drainages in this area flow northeast into the North Fork of the Gunnison <br />River. The watercourses in the drilling area are intermittent in nature and do not flow year <br />• round. <br />GEOLOGY <br />The proposed Exploration Hole will be drilled along the southeastern edge of the <br />Piceance Basin within the Somerset Coal Field, occurring on the Somerset U.S.G.S. 7 <br />minute quadrangle map. <br />Initial geological work in this area was done by W. T. Lee (1912), who reported his <br />findings in "Coal Fields of Grand Mesa and the West Elk Mountains, Colorado" (USGS <br />Bulletin 510). Later in 1948, Ward H. Johnson published a USGS map of the Paonia Coal <br />Field incorporating drill hole data generated through a USGS and U.S. Bureau of Mines <br />drilling program. The following year Johnson further described the geology of the <br />Minnesota Creek area in USBM Technical Paper 721. More recently, in 1989, C. R: <br />Dunrud compiled a coal resources map of the region (USGS Map C-11~). In 1998 the <br />Colorado Geological Survey published Availability of Coal Resources in Colorado: <br />Somerset Quadrangle, West-Central Colorado (CGS Resource Series 36). <br />The general stratigraphy of the area consists of members of the Mesa Verde Formation of <br />the Upper Cretaceous System underlying the Wasatch Formation of Tertiary Age. The <br />Barren Member of the Mesa Verde formation crops out lowest in the area with the <br />overlying Ohio Creek member exposed along many of the steeper slopes. Above the <br />• Mesa Verde, rocks of the Wasatch Formation are exposed. The Upper and Lower Coal <br />