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EXPLORATION PLAN <br />3482.1(A}(3)(iii)-Narrative Description of Proposed Exploration Area <br />The proposed exploration area is located approximately 10 miles east of Paonia, Colorado and 6 <br />miles southeast of the town of Sainerset, Colorado. The area lies within a portion of T.14S. <br />R.90W. 6~ Prime Meridian, Gunnison County, Colorado. The proposed exploration area is <br />Located south and east of the existing West Elk Mine. Locations of the 17 proposed sites are <br />shown in Table 1. The area for twelve proposed holes is within an existing coal license held by <br />Mountain Coal Company (C-1362} as shown on Figure 1B. Eleven of the 12 proposed drill sites <br />on USFS lands have been previously analyzed and approved as part of MCC's E Seam Methane <br />Drainage Well Project and are proposed to be converted to MDW's upon completion of <br />exploration activities. The USFS Record of Decision for the E Seam MDW Project, dated 11-18- <br />2007, is included as Attachment 2. The 12th proposed site has been previously used as an <br />exploration drill site for hole SOM-66 drilled in August 1974. The site is to be re-drilled due to <br />suspect thickness and quality data. <br />Surface Topography <br />The elevation of the proposed exploration area ranges from 7400 ft. in the drainage of Dry Fork <br />of Minnesota Creek and increases southeastward to 8400 ft. on Lions Mesa. The terrain is <br />comprised of moderate slopes and benches within the Wasatch and Mesa Verde Formations and <br />the alluvial slopes derived from the Dry Fork drainages. Dry Fork of Minnesota Creek drains <br />west and south into Minnesota Creek. Minnesota Creek in turn joins the North Fork of the <br />Gunnison River at the town of Paonia. <br />Primary access to the sites will be via USFS Road 711, historically known as Hammond Trail. <br />Road 711 follows the course of the Dry Fork before crossing Deep Creek and ascending the east <br />flank of Coal Creek Mesa. Road 711-2C will be upgraded to access three of the four sites, 2009- <br />A, 2009-B, and 2009-D. the fourth site, 2009-C, is adjacent to Road 711 slightly east of the other <br />three holes. <br />MCC's existing Special Use Road Permit is included as Attaclunent 3. <br />GeoloQy <br />The proposed Dry Fork exploration application area lies along the southeastern edge of the <br />Piceance Basin within the Somerset Coal Field, occurring an the Mimiesota Pass U.S.G.S. 7 1/2 <br />minute quadrangle map. Refer to Figure 1B. <br />Initial geological work in this area was done by W. T. Lee (1912) who reported his findings in <br />"Coal Fields of Grand Mesa and the West Elk Mountains, Colorado" (USGS Bulletin 510). Later <br />in 1948, Vard H. Johnson published a USGS map of the Paonia Coal Field incorporating drill <br />hole data generated through a USGS and U.S. Bureau of Mines drilling program. The following <br />year Johnson fiu-ther described the geology of the Minnesota Creek area in USBM Technical <br />Paper 721. More recently, in 1989, C. R. Dunrud compiled a coal resources map of the region <br />