2009-02-23_PERMIT FILE - X200921208 (3)

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. Primary access to the sites in the Dry Fork area will be via USFS Road 711, historically known as Hammond Trail. Road 711 follows the course of the Dry Fork before crossing Deep Creek and ascending the east flank of Coal Creek Mesa. Road 711-2C will be upgraded to access three of the four sites, 2009-A, 2009-B, and 2009-D. the fourth site, 2009-C, is adjacent to Road 711 slightly east of the other three holes. Primary access to the sites on Lions Mesa will be vial USFS 711 to USFS 711-2A along Deer Creek to the MCC's fee surface. An alternate route is from the County Road 710 to MCC's fee surface at Lick Creek. MCC's existing Special Use Road Permit in included as Attachment 3. Geoloy The proposed Dry Fork Lions Mesa exploration areas lies along the southeastern edge of the Piceance Basin within the Somerset Coal Field, occurring on the Minnesota Pass U.S.G.S. 7 1/2 minute quadrangle map. Refer to Figure 1B. Initial geological work in this area was done by W. T. Lee (1912) who reported his findings in "Coal Fields of Grand Mesa and the West Elk Mountains, Colorado" (USGS Bulletin 510). Later in 1948, Vard H. Johnson published a USGS map of the Paonia Coal Field incorporating drill hole data generated through a USGS and U.S. Bureau of Mines drilling program. The following year Johnson further described the geology of the Minnesota Creek area in USBM Technical Paper 721. More recently, in 1989, C.R. Dunrud compiled a coal resources map of the region (USGS Map C-115). In progress from the Colorado Geological Survey is report on the coal resources of the Somerset Quadrangle (CGS OFR 98-6). The general stratigraphy of the area consists of members of the Mesa Verde Formation of the Upper Cretaceous System underlying the Wasatch Formation of Tertiary Age (see Figure 2). The Barren Member of the Mesa Verde formation crops out lowest in the exploration area with the overlying Ohio Creek member exposed along many of the steeper slopes. Above the Mesa Verde, rocks of the Wasatch Formation are exposed. Capping most of the higher terrains are colluvial deposits. The Upper and Lower Coal Members of the Mesa Verde Formation are the major coal- bearing units in the area. The A (King), B (Somerset), and C (Bear) coal beds of the Lower Coal Member and the D (Oliver), E (Hawks nest), and the F-Seam coal beads of the Upper Coal Member have all been mined within the North Fork Valley. The extent of these coal beds beneath the exploration area is only marginally defined. The strata in the Dry Fork and Lions Mesa areas dip generally at 4 degrees to the north and northeast. Steeper dips are assumed to occur in the proximity of the Mt. Gunnison laccolith although the extent of folding is unknown at this time. • 3