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L PROCEDURES AND SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW PROCESS <br />The Mountain Coal Company, LLC (MCC) applied for Partial Phase I Bond Release under the <br />Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act following reclamation of a portion of the West Elk <br />Mine. The mine is located in Gunnison and Delta Counties, approximately 10 miles east of Paonia, <br />Colorado, on Colorado Highway 133. The mine area is located in all or portions of Sections 9 <br />through 36 (inclusive), Township 13 South, Range 90 West; Sections 23 through 26 (inclusive), <br />Township 13 South, Range 91 West; and Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, Township 14 <br />South, Range 90 West; all of the 6th Principal Meridian. The permit area can be found on the <br />Bowie and Somerset USGS 7.5- minute quadrangle maps. <br />Bond Release Summary <br />Partial Phase I Bond Release SL -01 was received on 19 July 2004 and requested a release of 15.19 <br />acres for the thermal event disturbance area. The Division approved the Partial Phase I Bond <br />Release SL -01 on 14 October 2005 and released $79,727.00. <br />Partial Phase I Bond Release SL -02 was received on 26 July 2004 and requested a release of 5.5 <br />acres for the Lone Pine Gulch facilities area. The Division approved the Partial Phase I Bond <br />Release SL -02 on 2 November 2005 and released $122,629.00. <br />Partial Phase I Bond Release SL -03 was received on 16 May 2011 and requested a release of 47.65 <br />acres. The release included the plugging and abandonment of 74 drill holes, the backfilling and <br />regrading of 48 drill pads and the backfilling and regrading of approximately 8.5 miles of roads. <br />The Division issued its proposed decision to approve the Partial Phase I Bond Release SL -03 on 10 <br />August 2012 and released $470,488.00. <br />Partial Phase II Bond Release SL -04 was received on 3 October 2013 and requested a release of <br />67.6 acres. The release included the replacement of topsoil and revegetation to control erosion to <br />premining levels on vent shafts, drill pads and their associated light -use roads. The Division issued <br />its proposed decision to approve the Partial Phase 11 Bond Release SL -04 on 8 July 2013 and <br />released $196,037.00. <br />The Division received MCC's SL -05 application for a Partial Phase I Bond Release on 22 February <br />2013. The application was deemed complete on 8 April 2013, after receiving a copy of the affidavit <br />of publication of West Elk's SL -05 legal notice. The legal notice was published four times in the <br />Delta County Independent (on 20 February, 27 February, 6 March and 13 March 2013). The <br />Division conducted a bond release inspection on 19 and 20 June 2013. The site inspection was <br />conducted in accordance with Rule 3.03.2(2), in response to the operator's filing of the complete <br />Partial Phase I Bond Release application SL -05. Lands included in the bond release area were <br />federally owned. The coal mined in the bond release area was also federally owned. Persons <br />present during the bond release inspection included: Jim Stark representing the Division, Kathy <br />Welt and Jessica Loveland representing MCC, Howard Strand representing the Office of Surface <br />Mining (OSM) and Dan Gray representing the US Forest Service (USFS). Letters notifying surface <br />West Elk Mine SL -05 Findings 3 11 February 2014 <br />