2012-12-20_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981038

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Impacts to wildlife are minimized by prohibiting public use of trails when big game are concentrated in the winter (December 1 to April 16), and by prohibiting the cutting of snags except those within the actual disturbed area. Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans The Bowie No. 1 Mine was an underground mine which had been in operation since 1975 but which has ceased operations and is in the process of being reclaimed. There are three major disturbed areas within the permit boundary. The original portals east of Steven's Gulch were the site of the main offices, crushing and screening facilities, and storage and warehouse areas. Before reclamation activities began in 2000, the Bowie No. 1 West Mine portals on East Roatcap Creek used to be adjoined by a small maintenance facility, ventilation shaft and water tank. The coal loadout facilities were located adjacent to the North Fork of the Gunnison River along State Highway 133. The Bowie No. 1 West Mine portal facilities in East Roatcap Creek enabled Bowie Resources Limited to access the reserves that had been cut off due to the fire at the main portals. Mining occurred west of the main East Mine during the 1988 to 1993 five year mine plan. The East Mine portals were rehabilitated during late 1992 and early 1993. The two mines were connected underground in June 1993 and a beltline was used to transport the majority of coal out of the east portals to the crushing and screening facility located at the east mine. This ended the need for the trucking of coal from the west mine portals, which had commenced when the West Mine became operational. The approved plan to construct rock slope tunnels to connect the east and west mines became obsolete with the rehabilitation of the east mine portals. The mine utilized the room and pillar mining method of extracting coal. The general direction of mining had been northward to extract coal from the D seam. When mining was active, the coal had moved from the mining face via a continuous haulage system of shuttle cars to a feeder - breaker and then out of the east mine via conveyor belt to a surge bin, a screening/crushing facility and a truck loading facility. After mining at the Bowie No. 1 Mine had ceased, BRL periodically would truck coal from the Bowie No. 2 Mine to the Bowie No. 1 Mine storage silos and railroad loadout facility where it was loaded onto trains for shipment to market. However, most of the Bowie No. 1 Mine unit train loadout facilities have been demolished and removed. Because mining has ceased, there is no predicted production rate for this five year permit term. The approved reclamation plan requires that, after the conclusion of mining, the portals will be backfilled, all surface facilities will be removed, the mine benches will be recontoured, the loadout will be regraded to approximate original contour, and all areas will be revegetated in accordance with the approved postmining land use and revegetation plan. All structural demolition and backfilling and grading operations have been completed at the East Mine, however, all of the sediment ponds are still in place. All structural demolition has occurred at the West Mine as well and backfilling and regarding has been completed. The East Roatcap Creek culvert and two overlying sediment ponds still need to be removed at which time the cover material over the culvert will be graded back onto the hillslope and the East Roatcap Creek drainage channel reconstructed. Most of the structural demolition has occurred at the loadout. The shop, railroad spur line, and bridge are still in place. There has not been any backfilling of the loadout bench to date. The run -of -mine stockpile area has been regraded and revegetated. The sediment pond and a portion of the haul road are still in place. The pump house, water tank and water wells are still in place at the well field and the temporary Page 14 of 42