THE PALAEONTOLOGICAL HISTORICAL RESOURCE IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THE COALSPUR MINES LTD. VISTA PROJECT, TOWNSHIPS 50 AND 51, RANGES 22-24W5M, YELLOWHEAD COUNTY, WEST REGION Report No. APR 2012-01 April 9, 2012 Samuel M. Wilson, MSc, P. Geol, Prof. Palaeontologist (AB) Nautilus Paleontology, Inc. 319 Diamond Willow Point, Calgary, AB T3Z 2Z5 Introduction This palaeontological Historical Resource Impact Assessment (pHRIA) has been prepared for the Coalspur Mines Ltd (the “Operator”) Vista Project (the “Project”) located near the Town of Hinton in Yellowhead County (Figs 1-4). The pHRIA was completed at the request of the Operator through Lifeways of Canada Limited to insure compliance with Article 2.0 of Schedule A (Historical Resource Act Requirements) of Project File: 4560-11-061 dated August 10, 2011. The Project will include the pit, three dump sites and a fines settling pond, storage sites, ponds, plant site and a conveyor/loadout system. Total disturbance footprint will include approximately 2,644 ha (Fig 3). Coalspur’s Vista coal deposit consists of large tonnage near surface multi-seam thermal coals of the Coalspur Formation. The mining method will be a large- scale integrated truck/shovel and dragline operation. Mined, cleaned coal will be conveyed to a loadout site located north of Highway 16 via an overland conveyor approximately 7 km in length. The mine will produce up to 5 million tonnes per year over an estimated 20 year life. The ultimate mine pit dimensions will be approximately 12 km in length, from east to west with a width variance of 1.0 to 1.7 km in a north to south direction. The pits estimated maximum depth will be 250 m. Large dumps are planned as there will be significant overburden and waste removal consisting of Paskapoo Formation bedrock and non-coal deposits of the Coalspur Formation; both are potentially fossiliferous. The purpose of this document is to discuss the baseline geology and palaeontology along with field assessment of the lands within, and adjacent to, the Project area in order to ascertain whether further mitigative measures are warranted. NAUTILUS PALEONTOLOGY, INC. Coalspur Vista Project p. 2 of 19 Figure 1. Location Map (from Waldrop Feasibility Study, 2011). Samuel M. Wilson NPI Report 2012-01 Figure 2. Location of initial mine permit and additional Coalspur leases shown on 83 F Edson 1: 50,000 topographic map (slide courtesy of Lifeways of Canada Limited). Figure 3. Major components of initial Vista Project development (slide courtesy of Coalspur). NAUTILUS PALEONTOLOGY, INC. Coalspur Vista Project p. 5 of 19 Figure 4. Project program map overlain on air photo (courtesy of Lifeways of Canada). Samuel M. Wilson NPI Report 2012-01 Geology and Palaeontology Physiographically, the area is characterized by relatively low rounded hills with local muskeg in low lying areas. Much of the property has been commercially logged and is covered with second growth pine and mixes of white spruce and poplar on the hillsides and ridges: alders, willows and black spruce occur in low lying areas (Waldrop, 2011). Based on core hole data, the area is overlain by a mantle of glacial till and alluvium which ranges in thickness from 5 to 30 m. Structurally, the Project area lies along the eastern margin of the Prairie Creek Anticline which is bounded on the west by the Pedley Fault, a major thrust fault that separates the folded and deformed strata of the Foothills belt from the undeformed Alberta Syncline strata. The structure is a simple monocline that trends 300° northwest/southeast with beds dipping gently northeast from 6° in the western edge of the property to up to 15° at the McLeod River on the eastern boundary (Waldrop, 2011). Underlying and cropping out within the Project area is the Campanian to Paleocene age Saunders Group which is over 3600 m thick in some areas (Jerzykiewicz and McLean 1980) and consists of the Brazeau, Coalspur and Paskapoo Formations (Figs 5 and 6). The Saunders Group was deposited primarily in lacustrine and alluvial environments. The Brazeau and Coalspur Formations represent cyclothemic deposition with the final cyclothem represented by the thicker coals within alluvial deposits in the Coalspur. The vast amount of coal reserves in the outer foothills are found in the Coalspur Formation. The Brazeau Formation is correlative with the Foremost through Battle Formations (with the Bearpaw Formation being absent) in south-east Alberta with the Coalspur Formation being correlative to the Maastrichtian to Paleocene age Scollard Formation in eastern Alberta (Smith et al, 1994). The Paskapoo Formation consists of cycles of thick tabular buff colored sandstones greater than 15 m in thickness and, when stacked, can reach thicknesses of over 60 m. These thick sandstone units are overlain by siltstones and mudstones (Dawson et al, 1994). During Paskapoo Formation deposition, large volumes of clastic sediments were dumped into the basin following the widespread coal development of the upper Scollard, essentially burying the peat swamps and producing extensive deposits of coarse-grained sandstone lying disconformably on the underlying fine-grained sediments (Lerbekmo et al., 1990; Demchuk and Hills, 1991). Economically important coals are restricted to the Paskapoo Formation north of Hinton at the Obed Mountain coalfield. Palaeontologically, Brazeau equivalents (Foremost through Battle Formations) have produced numerous significant sites in south eastern Alberta, especially along the Red Deer River and its tributaries. In northern Alberta, the Pipestone bonebeds near Grand Prairie have produced significant Pachyrhinosaurus fossils from the Wapiti Formation (Currie et al., 2008). In the Project vicinity, the Cadomin Fossil site has yielded fossil wood (TMP 1983.058.0001) from 10-48- NAUTILUS PALEONTOLOGY, INC. Coalspur Vista Project p. 7 of 19 22W5, an Albertosaurus mandible (TMP 1983-058-0002) from 11-48-22W5 and a hadrosaur maxilla (TMP 1983-058-0003) from 11-48-22W5 (HeRMIS website). Caldwell (2007) described fossil plant material in the form of wood fragments, logs and in-situ water plant assemblages in addition to trace fossils during field assessment of the Highway 40:30 realignment and Athabasca River bridge replacement project in 1-51-26W5M and 6-51-25W5M. The Coalspur Formation’s equivalent, the Scollard Formation has yielded significant theropod and ornothischian dinosaur material along the Red Deer River valley from Maastrichtian age rocks. Paleocene mammalian fossils were first discovered from the Paskapoo Formation in 1910 along the Red Deer River (Simpson 1927; Fox 1990). Since then, over 35 additional fossil mammal sites have been discovered ranging in age from middle Torrejonian through late Tiffanian time (Fox 1990; Scott 2003; Scott, 2006; Scott, et al, 2006). The Paskapoo Formation has also yielded non-mammalian vertebrate, invertebrate, insect and plant fossils at sites such as Joffre Bridge near Red Deer (Hoffman and Stockey, 1999), fish fossils at Smoky Tower (Murray and Wilson, 1996) and Blindman River (Grande et al, 2000) sites and amphibians from Smoky Tower (Naylor and Fox, 1993). Although there are no known Coalspur palaeontological sites in the immediate vicinity of the project area, the Diss site, located in SW/8-48-20W5M (Fig 7) has yielded a number of significant small mammals (Terrejonian?) from the Coalspur Formation. A summary of vertebrate fossil material from the Diss site, which includes a number of significant small mammals and an articulated salamander skull, is presented by R.C. Fox (1990). A gastropod (TMP 1988.097.001) is also known from the Diss site. In addition, Paskapoo (?) gastropods (TMP 1988.097.008 and .009) were noted from the Robb coal mine in 21-49-21W5M (HeRMIS website). Samuel M. Wilson NPI Report 2012-01 NAUTILUS PALEONTOLOGY, INC. Coalspur Vista Project p. 8 of 19 Figure 5. Geologic Map of Project Area (modified from 1999 AGS Geological Map of Alberta). Figure 6. Schematic cross section illustrating the correlation and stratigraphic relations of major coal-bearing units in the Interior Plains (from Geologic Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin). Samuel M. Wilson NPI Report 2012-01 NAUTILUS PALEONTOLOGY, INC. Coalspur Vista Project p. 9 of 19 Figure 7. Location of Paleocene fossil sites in W5 and W6 areas of Alberta. Project site and Diss Paleontological Locale are highlighted (base slide courtesy of RTMP). Field Assessment METHODOLOGY The field assessment for this project was conducted in accordance with Mitigative Palaeontological Excavation Permit 11-018, approved on September 26, 2011 with field work being conducted from October 1st to October 3rd, 2011 by Mike Riley and Kevin Aulenbach. Waypoints and the inspection track were recorded using a Garmin Montana GPS and plotted with the Garmin MapSource computer map orientation program. Digital photographs were taken at key points within and adjacent to the Project area such as bedrock exposures and any palaeontological sites with recovered fossils, if encountered. The assessment track is shown in Figure 8. Objectives of this report involve the location, assessment, and documentation of fossiliferous sites, and if necessary, the salvage of significant fossil material. Collection of fossils is usually confined to specimens that have been dislodged or eroded to the surface, and may be subject to destruction by the construction machinery or weathering. For suspected micropalaeontological sites, a sample Samuel M. Wilson NPI Report 2012-01 NAUTILUS PALEONTOLOGY, INC. Coalspur Vista Project p. 10 of 19 of rock is taken and inspected later under a stereo binocular microscope. Subequent mitigative measures, if necessary, are recommended in order to protect fossil resources which may be damaged or destroyed by subsequent construction and related operations. The Project outline was overlain on the 83 F 03 Cadomin topographic map and available lease roads and jeep trails chosen for assessment access. Areas within the sites where the roads and trails became impassible were not studied in detail. Figure 8. Inspection track (red line) shown on Garmin MapSource display.