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Commissioner’s 10% waste allowance leads to another reduction of
306,012 tons.11
Our conclusion after all these calculations is that there
are 2,754,111 tons of recoverable deposits.
2. Rate of Extraction
We must next determine how long the mining will take. The
Commissioner’s computation reflects his assertion that it would
take approximately six-to-eight months to begin operations, while
Terrene argues that it would take only three. We find in favor
of Terrene on this point because the Assemblies of God Foundation
could have moved quickly to start mining the property since it
had already leased the neighboring property. We will use three
months as our hypothetical delay for site preparation.
The parties also butt heads over how much such a mining
operation could produce--the IRS contends an upper limit of
200,000 tons annually, while Terrene argues for 360,000 tons.
Moritz’s estimate for the Commissioner was largely based on
unnamed producers whom he had interviewed. Ebanks also
interviewed local operators, some of whom backed up Ebanks with
their testimony. Ebanks noted in particular one local operator
who explained that the Hamblen Road property would be considered
small by some operators--not so small as not to be of interest,
11 3,060,123 (tons remaining after setbacks, work area, and
pit slope accounted for) x 10% = 306,012.
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Last modified: November 10, 2007