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INTRODUCTION <br />Nuvemco, LLC (Nuvemco) is the owner and operator of the Last Chance Mine and proposes to <br />convert the current 110(2) Permit to a Designated Mining 112d(1) Operation with this <br />Reclamation Permit Application Package. The Last Chance Mine has operated intermittently <br />since 1977. Previous operators included Umetco, Excel Mining, and lastly by LSC Mining and <br />Horsefly Farms, from whom Nuvemco acquired the property in March 2007. <br />The Mine is an underground uranium/vanadium mine located in Montrose County, Colorado. <br />Specifically, the mine portal is located on the Last Chance #4 claim with underground workings <br />extending under the Last Chance #3 and #2 claims. The mine is currently operated in accordance <br />with the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS). The active surface <br />mining facilities and operations area includes about 2.46 acres with less than 1.2 acres of actual <br />surface disturbance. The total permit area is 49.98 acres as described in Exhibit A which <br />follows. This area has been previously mined and extensively drilled, thus Nuvemco must <br />confirm the existence of remaining uranium and vanadium ore reserves and economic viability <br />by drilling to direct the expansion of the underground mining operation. <br />The Last Chance Mine is located on Davis Mesa in Montrose County, Colorado on claims in <br />Township 46 North, Range 18 West, Section 12 (New Mexico Prime Meridian, N.M.P.M.) as <br />shown on Map A-1 in the following section. Nuvemco also controls the unpatented claims <br />surrounding the proposed permit area. <br />Historically, miners in the area would locate outcropping uranium bearing deposits with Geiger <br />counters and then mine the ore by driving adits from the sides of canyon walls in the nearly <br />horizontal sandstone beds. Mining was largely restricted to following the ore underground by <br />conventional drill/blast/muck techniques. Exploration was aided by drilling vertical holes from <br />the surface, or top of the mesa, mapping the radioactive ore bodies by drilling close spaced <br />boreholes and directing the underground mining to the higher grade deposits. Many open or <br />collapsed adits and drill holes still exist throughout the area. The close spaced drilling is <br />evidenced by the extensive development of roads and trails used by drillers and as haul roads for <br />ore trucks and buggies from the numerous surface and underground mining operations. These <br />roads or trails are readily seen in aerial photographs and will be utilized for continued <br />exploration drilling of the Last Chance Mine permit area. <br />Several existing historic portals are present north and south of the permit area. As in much of the <br />Uravan Mineral Belt, this area was mined as early as 1910 for pitchblende for its radium content. <br />Mining continued intermittently during the 1940s through the early 2000s. About 990,000 tons <br />of ore was removed from claims on the Monogram and Davis Mesa prior to 1978. Ore <br />production is from several separate benches of fluvial sands within the Salt Wash member of the <br />Morrison Formation. <br />When acquired by Nuvemco, the site had been reclaimed and released. Nuvemco permitted this <br />mine site with the DRMS as a 110 (1) Permit No. M-2008-018. Nuvemco proceeded to reopen <br />the Last Chance Mine on a total site area of 4.90 acres with a disturbed area of about 2 acres with <br />facilities including a gated portal, waste rock dump, and ore pile with berms. Additionally, <br />Last Chance Mine - April 2009 <br />Introduction - I