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r.'qw- <br />U(111ID <br />OMPANIES <br />4Y <br />A9G' SP?QO.Q?y <br />?`C V <br />P.O. Box 3609 <br />2273 River Road <br />Grand Junction, CO 81502 <br />(970) 243-4900 <br />FAX: (970) 243-5945 <br />September 22, 2008 <br />Scott Gerwe <br />Bureau of Land Management <br />2815 H Road <br />Grand Junction, CO. 81506 <br />P.O. Box 1909 <br />21830 Hwy. 550 South <br />Montrose, CO 81402 <br />(970) 249-1815 <br />FAX: (970) 240-8497 <br />P.O. Boi(103 ; <br />7255-18004Rd'•-- <br />Delta, CO 81416 <br />(970) 874-9759 <br />FAX: (970) 874-8326 <br />P.OBgx,1556 <br />i 768; <br />6 & 24 <br />Rifle, CO 81650 <br />(970) 625-3738 <br />FAX: (970) 625-5605 <br />Re: Request to modify mining plan at United Companies BLM Pit east of 32 Rd. on <br />Orchard Mesa. <br />Dear Mr. Gerwe, <br />United Companies has mined the first two phases and part of the third phase at this <br />location by extracting the material from the BLM pit with a front end loader, then <br />processing and stockpiling the material two adjacent permitted properties. These two <br />properties are: Hall Pit - owned by United and Ford Pit - leased by United. <br />The current mining plan involves mining, processing, and stockpiling as mentioned <br />above, including reclaiming the previous phase of the BLM Pit with the overburden and <br />top soil from the phase currently being mined. <br />United Companies requests a slight change in the mining plan. The change would <br />include opening up one and a half (maybe two) future mining phases for mining, then <br />mining, processing, and stockpiling on the recently mined phase or phase and a half. The <br />plan includes taking top soil from the phase to be mined and constructing a safety berm <br />along the east side of the phase to be mined, then taking the overburden from the phase to <br />be mined and berming it on the west side of the stockpile area. This overburden berm <br />would serve as a visual and sound barrier for pit operations. When mining moved farther <br />east into future phases the overburden on the west side would be spread over the former <br />stockpile area and covered by the top soil stockpiled on the east side. This mining, <br />processing, stockpiling, and reclarnation method would continue on through Phase 8. <br />Phase 9 mining would involve moving the top soil and overburden to the Hall pit before <br />mining, and moving it back for reclamation. Other practical reasons for this change: <br />United wishes to clean up and reclaim the leased Ford Pit; From a reclamation standpoint <br />there would be a few more BLM arces disturbed at a time but with Ford being reclaimed <br />the overall disturbed acres in the area would decrease; and as United continues mining <br />east on BLM ground it would involve transporting BLM pit run in trucks west to the open <br />area of Hall-Ford involving extra cost transporting the material in addition to the Ford Pit <br />monthly rent.