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removed at the end of final reclamation. The mining operation will be conducted in a <br />northwesterly direction on the remaining 3.25 acres of the affected land. <br />All drilling operations will be with air or hydraulic powered equipment and the only water <br />usage will be for dust control. All water requirements will be met by trucking water to the <br />site from properly augmented commercial water supply sources. There will be no <br />ponding of water on site, no ground water will be encountered or disturbed so no injury <br />to water rights will occur. <br />The mining operation will utilize a track mounted hydraulic excavator to remove the <br />woody vegetation and the approximately 6 inches of channery loam top soil from new <br />undisturbed areas to be mined. Beneath the shallow layer of soil is low grade oil shale <br />rock overburden which extends downward to the richer mining zone. The removal of the <br />low grade shale above the mining zone will be accomplished using a track mounted <br />hydraulic impact breaker and excavator to break and remove the overburden. A rubber <br />tired front end loader will be used to transport and place overburden into the recently <br />mined area and or to the back fill area to the southeast of the mining advance. The <br />slopes adjacent to the mining operation will be benched to minimize vertical high walls <br />and will be scaled with an excavator to eliminate loose rock. The expanded volume of <br />rock created when the overburden is broken will fill a void equal to the area cleared of <br />overburden and the area mined for production during each mining cycle. <br />After removal of overburden an area 60 feet in width and 60 feet in length by 40 feet <br />deep will be mined in each mining cycle. Drilling and blasting will be contracted and an <br />air track drill and blasting agents will be brought to site as needed so no explosives or <br />detonators will be stored on site. Each mining sequence will require drilling downward <br />vertical 3 inch diameter holes on a rectangular pattern with 4 foot hole spacing to a <br />depth of 40 feet. Each hole will be charged with Ammonium Nitrate and Diesel Fuel <br />(ANFO) and primed with delay timed shock tube detonators. Timed sequencing of the <br />detonators will control the blast to minimize scatter and cast blast from the southern <br />exposed face toward the overburden backfill. Each mining cycle will produce <br />approximately 8,600 ton of oil shale. The rubblized shale will be loaded by excavator <br />onto trucks for delivery to the offsite test facility where it will be crushed and screened to <br />a controlled size in preparation for testing. The crushing of this material reduces <br />approximately 12 % percent of the oil shale to particles less than 1/2 inch in size which <br />will not be used for testing. The crushing of the shale does not alter the mechanical or <br />chemical characteristics of the oil shale so as part of the mining plan these small size <br />particles which will amount to approximately 1,000 cubic yards of material per mining <br />cycle will be returned to the mine site and placed as fill with the overburden. These <br />small particles of oil shale rock will be blended into the top layer of re- contoured <br />overburden and will be beneficial as they act as filler for the voids in the overburden and <br />will reduce loss of top soil to these voids during final reclamation and also help to <br />improve the retention of moisture in the top soil by limiting drainage of moisture into the <br />overburden. The volumes of overburden to be moved, material to be mined and top <br />2 <br />