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C- 1981 -022 <br />PR -7 Findings <br />October 4, 2012 <br />The original Bear Creek and Hubbard Creek ventilation facilities will be backfilled only to the <br />extent practical, given the fact that these small facilities areas are pre- existing and cut into steep <br />slopes. Furthermore, requests are on file from the federal agencies who manage the surface in <br />those areas to maintain them in their present condition — as gravel pad parking lots for users of <br />the access. These requests are from the US Forest Service for the Upper Hubbard Creek area and <br />from the US Bureau of Land Management for the Lower Hubbard Creek site. <br />A variance from AOC has been granted in accordance with the backfilling and grading <br />provisions of the Regulations (see Section VII of this document). Permanent waste piles will be <br />blended into the surrounding topography. The main mine access road will be left in place <br />following mining in order to provide access to the Somerset Cemetery and Elk Creek. The <br />power line access road and power line corridor will be reclaimed. <br />Following grading, all pre -law disturbed areas in the Elk Creek yard will have surface material <br />sampled to determine if it will be suitable for direct revegetation. The Sanborn Creek Tract <br />disturbance will be sampled in a similar fashion. If it is found that the surface material is not <br />suitable, the area will be top- dressed with suitable materials obtained from excavation for <br />reestablishment of the Elk Creek drainage from a borrow area near the backfilled Elk Creek <br />access portals or from topsoil stockpiles. Suitable plant growth medium will be spread to a <br />thickness of six inches. The area will then be seeded with the approved seed mixture and <br />mulched at the rate of 4,000 pounds of straw per acre. Straw will be crimped along the contour. <br />Somerset Mining Company, now Oxbow Mining, LLC, conducted a detailed soil survey and <br />vegetation survey of the areas to be affected by development of the Sanborn Creek portals, haul <br />road and conveyor facilities. These surveys indicated that approximately 8,850 cubic yards of <br />soil could be salvaged from these areas and that vegetation in the portal area and along the <br />conveyor /haul road corridor was substantially the same as the surrounding vegetative types. Soil <br />salvaged from these areas will be used for reclamation activities. However, soil on the Sanborn <br />Creek disturbance will not necessarily be replaced to the same original thickness, as discussed in <br />the Topsoil section below. <br />U.S. Steel conducted a vegetation survey of unaffected land adjacent to the surface - disturbed <br />areas for the purpose of developing a reclamation plan for the surface - disturbed area. A native <br />seed mix has been approved which is representative of the adjacent unaffected lands. The <br />surface will be returned to rangeland and wildlife habitat which is the present status of adjacent <br />lands and the pre- mining land use of the disturbed area. <br />In 2005, OMLLC commissioned two new Block Clearances for the Elk Creek and Sanborn <br />Creek Mines: a Class III Cultural Resource Inventory and a Biological Project (wildlife and <br />habitat survey for Threatened, Endangered and Sensitive Species and Management Indicator <br />Species). These studies may be found in Exhibit 2.04 -E7 (Vol. 8). <br />15 <br />