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and renamed it the New Horizon Mine. The New Horizon Mine is located on the NH2 Permit Area, <br />which is about .5 mile south of the original Nucla Mine. The two permit areas are separated by <br />Tuttle Draw, which is an erosional feature that divides the coal seams into two distinct economic <br />units. New Horizon mine has been supplying coal to the Naturita plant since its opening in 1992. <br />Annual production from PCC's Nucla Mine totaled 90,000+ tons in the earlier years, and WFC's <br />New Horizon Mine produces about 350,000 tons per year. <br />Currently, agriculture and seasonal tourism related to hunting are the primary uses in the area <br />The uranium industry has been essentially dead and the ore processing plant once operated by <br />Union Carbide (now UMETCO) at Uravan is in the final stages of eradication and reclamation. As <br />of 2009, there are some indications that the uranium industry could be active once again in the <br />area. <br />2.0 Adjacent Land Use <br />Land use adjacent to the New Horizon Permit area is either irrigated agricultural land (irrigated <br />pastureland or irrigated cropland), abandoned cropland or native rangeland used for livestock <br />grazing and wildlife habitat. Specifically, lands to the west and north of the permit area are <br />predominantly irrigated or abandoned irrigated cropland, while lands east of the permit area are <br />predominantly native rangeland, irrigated pasture or residential sites. Lands to the south of the <br />permit area are dominated by both irrigated and abandoned irrigated agricultural land, as well as <br />native rangeland until south of Calamity Draw, where irrigated agricultural land dominates once <br />again. <br />Active cropland and irrigated pasture areas are irrigated because of the very dry climatic conditions <br />experienced in this region. Irrigation water is delivered to the area by the Colorado Cooperative <br />Ditch. A system of lateral ditches deliver water to the irrigated fields whereupon it is spread on the <br />individual fields. One of these laterals, the West Lateral, bounds or traverses portions of the permit <br />area. Improvements are generally limited to land leveling, where soils are deep enough, orto more <br />efficient delivery /water spreading systems. Agricultural land has been abandoned in several areas <br />because of either poor water availability, poor site characteristics related to topography and flood <br />irrigability or poor economic return. Poorer sites or areas with shallow soils are in irrigated <br />hay /pasture production while the deeper soils areas are in crop production or crop /hay rotations. <br />Crops normally grown are annual grains, alfalfa or corn for silage. Irrigated hay or pasture is <br />predominated by alfalfa with grasses such as smooth brome ( Bromus inermis orchard grass <br />(Dactylis glomerata or introduced wheat grasses ( Aoropvron sp.) included in varying degrees of <br />Revised September 2010 (PR 06) 2.04.3 -2 <br />