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Jul 13 09 05:15p <br />r•? <br />product passes on to a vibrating screen where the water is added through a spray system. <br />The wet feed goes into an agitator, then through another screen, a hydrocyclone to <br />remove excess water and clays, then onto a spiral which separates the sand by weight into <br />plain quartz and perhaps feldspar sands and a heavier fraction which may stilt hold some <br />sand but will mostly be heavy minerals (black sand) and rare earths. The heave fraction <br />passes onto a vibrating or shaker table where the final separation is made of the precious <br />metals from the not so precious ones. Excess water containing the coarser sand fractions <br />from the screens, the clays from the hydrocyclone, and the sand from the spiral will be <br />conducted to the unlined settling pond (a 20' X 20' X 5'deep hole dug alongside the plant <br />just for the purpose of settling cuttings from the plant water) as will excess water from <br />the shaking table. The unlined pond will be cleaned periodically and the recovered sand <br />permitted to drain before being taken back to the drill holes for backfilling. Whatever <br />water remains in the pond will be used again in the plant. Some will filter through the <br />sand and back to the water table but it is simply plain water with the same composition as <br />that that is pumped from the well or the pond. <br />The sand recovered from the pond, as mentioned above, will be hauled back to the <br />drill holes for backfilling the holes. Once the backfill reaches a few feet frorn the top, a <br />polyfoam plug from three to Eve feet long will be placed in the hole and more cuttings <br />put on top leaving some room for topsoil. The transportation of the samples ftm the <br />holes to the processing plant will be done in a small trailer pulled by an ATV.. The <br />backfilling sand will be hauled back to the holes in the same fashion. The drill hole <br />topsoil and any scuffing by the drill rig will be smoothed out and the areas seeded with <br />the mix recommended by the BLM as listed in the appended memo. <br />A backhoe-loader will be used for stripping the working area for the plant, excavating <br />the 20'X20' settling pond, lifting equipment into place, and handling other general duties <br />that may come up. It will also likely be used in reclamation for backfilling the settling <br />pond pit and moving topsoil back onto the work area for the plant. <br />A sanilet will be placed on the site. <br />SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES <br />The schedule of activities includes beginning the assembly of the sample processing <br />plant and, if the driller is available, concurrently the first phase of the limited drilling of <br />40 holes will be begun in the area outlined in orange on the map provided to the BLM <br />Little Snake Field Office on June 29, 2009. With any luck, this work will begin on July <br />6, 2009. Until they are backfilled, holes will be capped with a metal cap to prevent inj ury <br />to people or animals. All drill holes which encounter water will have two sacks of <br />bentonite placed in the bottom of them. Samples will be left by the drill hole until being <br />hauled to the processing plant for treatment. When these first drill holes have been <br />reclaimed and the samples therefrom have been processed and more is known about the <br />mineral distribution, the drill rig will be brought back to drill more holes, not over 40 in <br />the second phase, to make a total of 80 at the maximum. The samples from these holes <br />will also be processed through the plant. With any sort of luck, the program vdll be <br />ended by October 1, 2009 because the owner of the private portion of the access road <br />wants us done by hunting season. If we aren't finished with the program, we will have to <br />.finish in 2010. That will apply to reclamation as well.