GRAVEL PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS AND USES - Polar Mining, Inc.

5836 Poker Creek Circle, Fairbanks, AK 99712 455-4198 email: pmifox@ Visit our website at Visit Polar Mining on Facebook

GRAVEL PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS AND USES

The following brief product descriptions will help customers who are unfamiliar with our products make the best choice for their project.

FLD Fill Dirt Dirt / silt mix, unscreened, some organics, sticks and gravel.

Uses: 1) Covering for septic systems due to better insulating quality than gravels 2) Yard, lawn, garden, and landscaping base soils

DTM Dirt Topsoil Mix Select dirt and topsoil, more peat in the mix, unscreened, some organics

and sticks. If you don't want to rake out the organics / roots, then you will need to buy screened topsoil elsewhere, but pay 3-4 times more. Uses: Similar to FLD above, but it will allow quicker natural growth 1) Covering for septic systems due to better insulating quality than gravels 2) Yard, lawn, garden, and landscaping base and topsoil

PTR Pit Run Gravel Unwashed and unscreened gravel. Different from Tanana Valley pit run, has

bigger rock, occasionally up to 12", and more fines. Gets greasy when wet due to silt content but sets up tight when compacted and dry. Holds vertical edge when digging it from the stockpile. Needs to have stockpile face scraped and loosened with larger equipment so that smaller 5-yard loaders can dig/load it.

Used as a lower-cost alternative to fill larger holes, under storage pads, landscaping fill around houses, and then if needed, can be capped with other topping gravels to make the surface less greasy.

NOTE: Not for use under building foundations as this is considered "frost susceptible" material due to its higher fines content.

WASHED AND SCREENED PRODUCTS All considered Non-Frost Susceptible (NFS)

6MT 6" Minus Tailings Similar to dredge tailings, without the huge rocks and metal trash. This

material is the best choice for use with a muddy or soft base. It is fairly low on fines, so it helps sop up the mud by wicking it up into the tailings and then locking it up. Can be used directly into mud.

As an example, see the video clip of a 330,000-lb. rock truck delivering 60 yards of 6MT tailings, as a covering over 30 feet deep of settling pond mud. In this clip the loaded truck drives more than 500 feet out into the middle of a settling pond, supported on a capping layer 3-4 feet thick of 6MT, turns and the backs out on a narrow dike being built to divert the water/mud inflow. Check out the lack of deflection under the tires. It's impressive how this stuff locks up over mud!

6BL

6" Minus Blend Remix blend of 6" minus tailings and ?" minus gravel (FRT) added for

binder, 66/34 blend. This blended version of our 6MT has added fines to enhance its compaction and is

considered our best road base material. This stuff really sets up tight after good compaction. When using it

on mine roads and ramps, and then having to excavate it later, we've had to rip it first - before being able to

doze it away (that's using a CAT D10 size dozer ? 200,000 lbs).

It is low in fines (tests in the 2-4% range of -200's) so it is considered "Non-Frost Susceptible" (NFS) and has been used as locking base fill under foundations.

Another advantage of using this 6BL material is that the larger rocks tend to work down into the base during compaction, minimizing the need for a capping material covering. Can be placed in >6" lifts.

FRT Fine Road Top ?" Minus Gravel / Sand (aka Polar Fines). One of our all-time best sellers,

this material has many uses. This is the remaining product from our paydirt processing. It has been washed, screened to ?" minus, and then put through a gravity recovery circuit to remove the placer gold. There are no chemicals added or used at any point, only recycled pond water is used in this process. It then goes into a dual sand-screw that removes the fine silts and sands, and dewaters the product for stockpiling. It has a tested minimum natural rock face fracture of 56%, ranging up to 100% multi-face fracture when processing lower bedrock.

This stuff really compacts well, too! You'll notice that it also holds a vertical face when being dug from a high stockpile. I've been told many times by the loader operators that they can't dig into the pile anymore because it seems frozen (even in late summer) and is too hard to penetrate!

If you want to see how FRT holds up, look at our mine access road from Goldstream Road. Built across permafrost, we have capped our entry road with FRT, from 6" thick to over 10 feet thick in places where it

has settled (due to thawing permafrost). The thickness of the FRT makes no difference to usability. We normally blade this access road once per summer, even though it gets travelled by thousands of loaded gravel trucks each year. Try this anywhere else using Tanana Valley pit run gravel, which washboards quickly with far less usage.

Uses: Can be used as a poor man's D-1 substitute gravel, or as Tanana Valley pit run gravel alternative (see above).

Is considered NFS due to its low silt content and has been used under many building foundations. Works easily by hand shovel or rake when loose, can even be spread and leveled using a 4-wheeler snowblade. But once compacted, it stays down and is not easily peeled up by winter snowplowing.

As an example, when we built our shop, we used 3 feet thick of FRT under the slab area, brought it to grade, and compacted it well with water and a loaded rock truck. As we were using a monolithic slab foundation, we thought we'd then hand dig the footer trench with sharp spades, but we couldn't dig it because it had set up too hard! We had to use a pick to break up the compacted FRT before it could be dug by hand.

FRT is also used in making the following products to increase their compactability:

6BL - 6" Minus Tailings Blend AD1 - Alluvial D-1 CRT - 2" Minus Coarse Road Top 4RB - 4" Minus Road Base

WASHED, SCREENED, AND RE-SCREENED MATERIALS

AD1 Alluvial D1 Gravel 1" minus rock with minimum 56% natural fracture, meets State of Alaska

sieve specs. I list this product as alluvial, but keep in mind that it is different from Tanana Valley alluvial gravels that have traveled much farther from their source. (The farther downstream rock travels, generally the rounder it becomes.) The rock in our location is angular due to its being much closer to its source, and it has a minimum tested 56% natural fracture, ranging up to 100% multifaced fracture. This enables our AD1 product to compact and hold up much better than alluvial D-1 produced in the other valley.

This product has double the amount of rock in it than our FRT, up to 1" in size. As such, it will bridge better and hold up to heavy traffic and water longer. Its smaller size lets it feather into potholes and existing solid road structures easily. Compacts well.

CRT Coarse Road Top Gravel 2" minus rock, 50/50 blend with FRT.

This product also has double the amount of rock in it than our FRT, up to 2" in size. As such it will again bridge better and hold up to heavy traffic and water longer. We've sold a lot of this product to heavy equipment yards, and construction sites, as well as to homeowners. Compacts well.

4RB

size.

4" Minus Road Base Gravel Similar to our 6BL product, but with a smaller maximum rock

Personally, I don't think it's as good a road base as our 6BL product, but some jobs call for a smaller rock size. Also compacts well.

DRK Drainage Rock 2 sizes available - 2" minus and 4" minus ? has a bit more fines than the

sewer rock. Can be used as a lower cost material for drainage, or as a capping rock in muddy areas. These products are the rock base portions of our CRT and 4RB products, before the FRT is added for compactability.

PPB Pathway Pebbles Clean 3/4" to 3/8" rock, mix of round and fractured rock. Can be used as

decorative landscape rock.

SSR Shallow Trench Sewer Rock DEC Spec 1-1/2" minus, 3/4" plus. Sewer rock for shallow

trenches or shallow beds. Can also be used in deep trenches. Often used as top layer in deep trenches to allow for easier hand finish work. Can also be used as decorative landscape rock.

DSR Deep Trench Sewer Rock DEC Spec 3" minus, 1-1/2" plus. Sewer rock for deep trenches.

Not rated for use in shallow trenches or shallow beds. Can also be used as decorative landscape rock.

DLN Ditch Liner Rock 6" minus, 3" plus rock. Used for bank stabilization and erosion control. Can

also be used as decorative landscape rock.

RRP Rip Rap 6" plus rock used for bank stabilization and erosion control. Can also be used as

decorative landscape rock.

Please keep in mind that there is no warranty, expressed or implied, in the foregoing product description guide.

If your job material requirements have exact engineered specifications, we can provide MAPPA lab test data from prior testing on some products, upon request. We will also allow customers to take material samples for their own job requirement analysis, upon request.

"I know you have a choice of where to purchase the gravel you need, and I want to thank you for choosing us. We appreciate your business!"

?Dan May, President of Polar Mining, Inc.

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