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March 2008, the permit was transferred from Colorado Westmoreland to New Elk Coal <br />Company, LLC. Mine -related activities continue to be solely focused on reclamation, bond <br />release, monitoring, and maintenance. <br />During active mining operations, the mine used both continuous miners and a 600 -foot wide <br />longwall mining machine to extract coal from the Maxwell seam. No longwall mining occurred <br />under Highway 12 or under the adjacent Purgatoire River alluvial valley floor. However, <br />development mining did occur in this area to allow access to reserves to the north of the <br />highway. Two complete longwall panels and a portion of a third panel were mined north of the <br />highway. Thirty-one mine drill holes and shafts that penetrated the mine workings were <br />converted to an industrial land use to allow for methane gas extraction from the workings. This <br />conversion allows for orderly gas extraction without additional disturbance to the environment <br />and allows development of a resource that would otherwise go to waste. <br />The mine site is located in a plateau area, where elevations range from 7,000 - 7,600 feet above <br />mean sea level. Land use in the area consists of cropland and pastureland on valley floors, with <br />rangeland dominating the upland areas. Recently, development of ranchettes and coal bed <br />methane extraction has become an extended use of these traditionally remote areas_ <br />Figure 2: Golden Eagle Mine NW -1 Vent Shaft Reclaimed Area, April 2015 <br />The Golden Eagle Mine is located on the western limb of the Raton Basin. The Raton Basin is a <br />broad, asymmetric syncline, the axis of which trends generally north -south. All mining activities <br />occurred in the Raton Formation, where the Maxwell seam is located. The Poison Canyon <br />formation unconformably overlies the Raton Formation and has a thickness of approximately <br />200 feet in the mine area. Unconsolidated Quaternary alluvial and colluvial deposits overlie the <br />Raton Formation in the low-lying areas. <br />The Raton Formation dips approximately two degrees east-northeast. The permit area contains <br />7 <br />