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<br />. <br /> <br />Colorado <br /> <br />N <br />/-10 <br />O'":l <br />0> <br /> <br />Approximately 29,600 square miles, or 28 percent, of the state is <br />underlain by coal, Colorado's most abundant energy resource. Much of <br />this coal is in western Colorado in the Upper Colorado River drainage. <br />(Keystone, 1977). Colorado's estimated reserves of 434 billion tons, <br />with overburden thickness of 6,000 feet or less, represents 11 percent <br />of the total resource for the United States, placing Colorado fourth in <br />the country in total estimated reserves (Averitt, 1975). The resource <br />with 3,000 feet of overburden, or less, is estimated by Averitt study <br />to be about 129 billion t~ns. In ~ddition, Colorado ranks second <br />(behind Illinois) in total bituminous coal resources and is first in <br />terms of low-sulfur bituminous coal (Averitt, 1975), which places the <br />state ia a strong position in the national energy picture. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The leading areas for both present annual production and total <br />in-place resources are the Green River-Sand Wash Basin in the north- <br />west corner of the state (study subunit l40500B) and the Uinta-Piceance <br />Basin (study subunit 140100 and 140100C) in the west-central part of <br />the state (Keystone, 1977). Bituminous coal comprised 94 percent of <br />Colorado's 1975 production, while the rest was subbituminous (Keystone, <br />1977). The high heat values and low sulfur, ash, and moisture of most <br />Colorado coal are increasingly in demand for steam power generation <br />and metallurgical grade applications. <br /> <br />Approximately three-fifths of the resource in Colorado occurs in the <br />western portion of the state which lies within the Upper Colorado River <br />Region. The coals under consideration occur in broad basins which are <br />frequently folded and faulted near the rims, in strata which range in <br />age from Upper Cretaceous through Paleocene and Eocene. The oldest coals, <br />those of highest rank, occur in the southwest corner of the state (study <br />subunit 14080lA) with successively young, lower rank coals occurring <br />northward and eastward. For example, in the San Juan region (study <br />subunit 140801 ), the coals of the Dakota and Mesaverde formations are <br />primarily high-volatile bituminous; in the youngest Cretaceous and <br />Tertiary strata of the Breen River region, they range down to sub- <br />bituminous C and lignite. The only anthracite in Colorado is in the <br />Crested Butte Field where the heat and pressure of metamorphism and <br />nearby intrusion of igneous rock masses have increased the coal rank <br />to semi-anthracite and anthracite (Kevstone, 1977). <br /> <br />The specific characteristics of western Colorado coals by coal <br />mining region and field are listed in Table B.l. Some generalizations <br />about the overall coal quality can be made. The average sulfur content <br />of 99 percent of the coal is less than 1 percent, and nearly all can be <br />processed for sulfur removal to less than 0.5 percent. Ash content, in <br />general, ranges between 2.1 percent and 15 percent, though most is in <br />the lower end of the range. Moisture content ranges from 1.0 percent <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />B-6. <br />