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West Elk Mine <br />1.0 INTRODUCTION <br />Mountain Coal Company, LLC (MCC) operates West Elk Mine, an underground bituminous <br />coal mine, on federal and fee coal leases located in Gunnison and Delta Counties, Colorado, two <br />miles east of Somerset, Colorado (Figure 1). The lease block locations are shown on Map 1. <br />The lease blocks are in Townships 13 and 14 South, Ranges 90 and 91 West, 6th PM. Mountain <br />Coal Company, LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company established in March 1998, is owned <br />100% by Arch Western Bituminous Group, LLC which is owned 100% by Arch Western <br />Resources, LLC, which is owned by Arch Coal, Inc. <br />Operations at West Elk Mine have been conducted under several different names in the past. <br />Before 1991, West Elk Mine itself was known as the Mt. Gunnison No.l Mine. Since the mine <br />opened, operations were conducted under the following names: Anaconda Minerals Company, <br />ARCO Coal Company (a Division of Atlantic Richfield Company), West Elk Coal Company, Inc. <br />and Mountain Coal Company. Many of the discussions, maps and exhibits included in this <br />document still reflect the other mine and company names. All the names are to be considered <br />synonymous with West Elk Mine and Mountain Coal Company, LLC. <br />When the original permit document was prepared, operations focused in the F Seam. However, <br />references to the F Seam resources and facilities throughout this application may also apply to the E <br />and B Seam resources and facilities. <br />Construction of West Elk Mine began in 1981. The mine began producing coal from the F Seam in <br />January 1982, from the northern B Seam reserves in 1990, and from the E Seam reserves in 2004. <br />Construction of facilities has been on-going to meet operations and production needs. <br />Construction of the Sylvester Gulch facilities area, including two ventilation shafts, three mine <br />ventilation fans, an electrical substation, access/haul roads, powerlines and other support facilities, <br />began in the Spring of 1997. Along with the main mine site facilities, the Sylvester Gulch facilities, <br />the Deer Creek ventilation facility (completed in 2009) and the mine ventilation boreholes, these <br />facilities provide the increased power, access, storage, coal handling and ventilation requirements <br />necessary to sustain underground mining operations. <br />When the West Elk Mine was originally permitted, it was envisioned to grow to 2.8 million tons per <br />year of production from the F -Seam room and pillar operations. Due to soft market conditions <br />during the late 1980's, the mine only produced about 0.5 million tons per year from the F Seam <br />room and pillar operations during this term. After longwall operations were established in the <br />northern B Seam in 1992 and in the E Seam in 2008, production increased to over 4.0 million tons <br />per year and is expected to increase to over 6.0 million tons and up to 8.2 million tons of clean coal <br />per year. <br />To allow MCC to remain as competitive as possible under current market conditions, mining was <br />expanded into the B and E Seams. With longwall mining technology, these seams have high <br />productivity capabilities. The coal seam height and other conditions in the F Seam were not <br />conducive to longwall mining, and room and pillar mining operations with continuous miners <br />cannot compete with longwall mining operations. The B and E Seams are, however, well-suited to <br />longwall mining methods. <br />Rev. 11/04-PRIO; 01/16-MR415 <br />1.0-1 <br />