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Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company A Joint Venture • ANGLOGOLD ASHANTI (COLORADO) CORP., Manager V Operations Office P.O. Box 191 • 100 North 3rd Street Victor, Colorado 80860 (7191689-2977 - Fax (719) 689-3254 18 July, 2008 Deborah Mariscano District Manager Park Center Water District P.O. Box 1406 Canon City, CO 81215 Dear Ms. Mariscano: Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company ("CC&V") is in receipt of your recent "objection" letter of the Cresson Project Mine Life Extension project sent to the attention of the Teller County Planning Commission. We were somewhat surprised by the tone and approach of the letter as CC&V has voluntarily worked with Park Center Water District providing data related to the flows of water from the Carlton Tunnel as well as information about the Cripple Creek Mining District and surrounding areas. CC&V also has cooperatively worked with you on the Fourmile Creek Water Quality Assessment and is working with Park Center Water District on our ongoing mutual interest in finding a potential alternative water source for the Fourmile Creek drainage. However, your recent letter to the Teller County Planning Commission as an "objector" to the Cresson Project Mine Life Extension sets a different tone to our relationship and requires this written response. CC&V is meeting our responsibilities at the Carlton Tunnel, including the water quality limitations stipulated in the Colorado Water Quality Control Division ("WQCD") discharge permit for the flow of water from the Tunnel. As we previously described to your board, the Carlton Tunnel drains a regional water table that includes the volcanic rocks in a general area between the cities of Cripple Creek and Victor. The CC&V Cresson Project is a part of that regional drainage area with any surface flows from the Project captured by on-site sediment control ponds and any infiltrating water needing to traverse somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 feet of rock before reaching the regional ground water table. Realize, also, that the Carlton Tunnel is some six or so miles distant from the Cresson Project area as the crow flies. Given these and other factors, the WQCD has not classified the flow of water from the Carlton Tunnel as mine drainage and that flow represents regional ground water that has been draining since completion of the Tunnel in 1941. As noted in your letter, the quality of the water flowing from the Carlton Tunnel has been relatively consistent since well before the Cresson Project started in 1994, including the sulfate levels that you note are of concern at the Park Center Water District