2009-04-13_REVISION - C1980007 (4)

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EXPLORATION PLAN 3482.1(A)(3)(iii)-Narrative Description of Proposed Exploration Area The proposed exploration area is located approximately 10 miles east of Paonia, Colorado and 6 miles southeast of the town of Somerset, Colorado. The area lies within a portion of 1'.14S. R.90W. 6th Prime Meridian, Gunnison County, Colorado. The proposed exploration area is located south and east of the existing West Elk Mine. Locations of the 17 proposed sites are shown in Table 1. The area for twelve proposed holes is within an existing coal license held by Mountain Coal Company (C-1362) as shown on Figure 1B. Eleven of the 12 proposed drill sites on USFS lands have been previously analyzed and approved as part of MCC's E Seam Methane Drainage Well Project and are proposed to be converted to MDW's upon completion of exploration activities. The USFS Record of Decision for the E Seam MDW Project, dated 11-18- 2007, is included as Attachment 2. The 12th proposed site has been previously used as an exploration drill site for hole SOM-66 drilled in August 1974. The site is to be re-drilled due to suspect thickness and quality data. Surface Topography The elevation of the proposed exploration area ranges from 7400 ft. in the drainage of Dry Fork of Minnesota Creek and increases southeastward to 8400 ft. on Lions Mesa. The terrain is comprised of moderate slopes and benches within the Wasatch and Mesa Verde Formations and the alluvial slopes derived from the Dry Fork drainages. Dry Fork of Minnesota Creek drains west and south into Minnesota Creek. Minnesota Creek in turn joins the North Fork of the Gunnison River at the town of Paonia. Primary access to the sites 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. MCC's existing Special Use Road Permit is included as Attachment 3 Geoloay The proposed Dry Fork exploration application area lies along the southeastern edge of the Piceance Basin within the Somerset Coal Field, occurring on the Minnesota Pass U.S.G.S. 7 V2 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 fiu-ther 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 2