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PHASE <br />TIME <br />Surface Facilities Construction <br />4 to 6 months <br />Reopening Portal /Shaft Rehabilitation <br />6 months <br />Drift Development <br />Concurrent with mining <br />* Mining <br />15 + years <br />rock storage area and grading of the areas used for parking, structures, and storage <br />equipment and other materials. <br />Below is a table of estimated times needed for each phase of mining. Once enough <br />development is completed, stoping can commence. Both stoping and further <br />development will be conducted simultaneously. <br />* Due to the erratic nature of the Uravan Mineral Belt's ore deposits and past mining <br />experience in this area, the life of this mine may be extended. This extension will be <br />determined, in part, to further delineate ore horizons by surface drilling and underground <br />longhole drilling from development headings. <br />Mine Access <br />The original portal will be reopened once mining begins. The portal is located in the <br />southeastern hillside of the permit boundary. <br />Underground Operations <br />Preliminary exploration drilling outlined several ore zones spread throughout the lease <br />area at various depths. To mine these zones from one entryway measuring nine feet high <br />by eleven wide, a decline was driven 1800 feet at 15.5% from the horizontal. This drift <br />will be reopened and rehabilitated where necessary. Rock support will include <br />conventional timbering and rock bolting in conjunction with shotcrete where applicable. <br />Once the portal and decline are re- opened and a ventilation shaft is re- opened, stope <br />development and mining will begin in the area at the end of the previously mined drifts <br />(for location and direction of previously mined drifts see Exhibit C - Maps, Figure C 1). <br />Ore will be mined using a random room - and - pillar stoping method. This stoping method <br />is similar to the one presently used in the Uravan Mineral Belt, i.e. split shooting is used <br />in conjunction with leaving waste rock and ore pillars wherever necessary for roof <br />support. This method of split- shooting involves assessing each face as the stopes <br />advance by the mine geologist, engineer, mine foreman, or experienced lead- miner. <br />Since the grades and thickness of the typical Salt Wash uranium - vanadium deposits are <br />highly variable, they are usually unpredictable from one round of mining to the next. A <br />round is a complete mining cycle of drill - blast- muck - ground support. A normal round <br />advances a working face about 6 feet. <br />Typically, the thickness of the mineralized material is less than the height needed to <br />advance the stope. As the stope face is being drilled, the blast holes are probed with a <br />D -2 <br />