2008-05-30_REVISION - C1981013

• Permit No: C1981013
• IBM Index Class Name: REVISION
• Doc Date: 5/30/2008
• Doc Name: Letter Regarding Revegetation Findings
• From: Sandy Brown
• To: Kent Gorham
• Type & Sequence: SL6
• Email Name: SB1
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

STATE OF COLORADO
DIVISION OF RECLAMATION, MINING AND SAFETY
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman St., Room 215
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
COLORADO
D IV IS I ON OF
RECLAMATION
MINING
SAFETY
TO: Kent Gorham Bill Ritter, Jr.
FROM: Sandy Brown Governor
DATE: May 30, 2008 ` Harris D. Sherman

RE:
Golden Eagle Phase III Bond Release Executive Director

Revegetation Findings Ronald W. Cattany
Division Director
Natural Resource Trustee
There are two primary vegetation communities that were disturbed at the Golden Eagle Mine:
pastureland in the valley bottoms and rangeland on the uplands. An alluvial valley floor
reference area was approved to measure revegetation success in the pasturelands and a rangeland
reference area was established for the rangeland (grasslands). The revegetation standard for both
communities requires that herbaceous cover and production in the reclaimed areas shall be at
least 90% of the cover or production as determined from the reference area with 90% statistical
confidence. Species diversity for the rangeland will be deemed adequate when the reclaimed
lands consist of a minimum of two cool season grasses, two warm season grasses and one forb.
These species shall each comprise five percent and no more than sixty percent relative cover and
shall be perennial non-noxious species. There is no species diversity standard for the
pastureland. The permit requires that the shrub component shall not compromise more than 5%
of the species composition on the reclaimed lands.
The last seeding at the Golden Eagle Mine was in 1996 and thus the required ten-year liability
period was achieved in 2006. Basin Resources, Inc. (BRI) hired Arcadis (formerly Greystone)
environmental consultants to measure revegetation success during the summers of 2005 and
2006, the last two years of the liability period.
Three undesirable species were encountered in the revegetation sampling effort. Canadian thistle
is listed on the State's B list of noxious species and field bindweed is on the State's C list.
Neither one of these species is listed on the Las Animas County noxious weed list. The operator
also encountered a large crop of yellow sweetclover during 2005 in the reclaimed rangeland area.
The operator subtracted out the cover value for these undesirable species in excess of 10%
relative cover as suggested by the Division's 1995 bond release guideline.
It should also be noted that the summer of 2006 was extremely dry in Las Animas County. The
vegetation sampling . effort was undertaken during this period. The low 2006 cover and
production numbers reflect the lack of moisture.
A summary of the final data from 2005 and 2006 is shown in the following table.
Office of Office of
Mined Land Reclamation Denver • Grand Junction • Durango Active and Inactive Mines