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If you concur with this recommendation, please sign the attached memorandum to the <br />Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management. <br />U. Background <br />The King Coal underground coal mine is located in La Plata County, Colorado, <br />approximately four (4) miles southwest of the town of Hesperus, Colorado. The mine has <br />been in operation since 1941 and currently employs sixty-five (65) people during full <br />production. The life of the currently approved mining operations within the approved <br />King mine permit area is estimated to be 2 years. The mining operations use room -and - <br />pillar mining methods. The average production rate is 0.6 million tons per year from the <br />Menefee Coal Bed No.I coal seam, but the maximum production rate could reach the <br />approved 0.61 million tons per year. <br />The original mining plan for Federal leases C-29125 and P-058300 at the King Coal Mine <br />was approved on June 20, 1982. Since that approval there have been five mining plan <br />modifications for the King Coal mine. New Federal lease COC -49465 was approved on <br />July 22, 1992. A mining plan modification for Federal lease COC -49465 and new Federal <br />lease C-29125 was approved on October 22, 1997. New Federal lease COC -60941 was <br />approved on December 28, 1998. A mining plan modification for Federal lease COC - <br />60941 was approved on March 23, 2001. A mining plan modification for eighty (80) <br />acres of new Federal lease COC -62920 was approved on August 9, 2006. <br />On June 15, 2006, the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (CO- <br />DRMS) approved a 720 acre addition to the King Coal mine, Colorado State permit C- <br />81-035, to be known as the King U mine. The King H mine includes approximately 80 <br />acres of Federal surface lands and coal in Federal lease COC -62920. Although the King <br />Coal and King U mines are within the same permit area they are not connected and <br />operate independently each having its own support facilities. <br />At present the King Coal mine and the King U mine permit area occupies an area of <br />approximately 2,812 acres of which approximately l 1 acres are disturbed at the King <br />Coal mine and approximately 20 acres will be disturbed at the King Q mine for the <br />construction of new support facilities under the Colorado State permit. In addition, as <br />part of the King Coal mine operations, approximately 492,000 tons of coal were mined on <br />lands owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe under Federal permit CO -0101 A. No <br />surface disturbance was necessary since access was provided through existing mine <br />workings. Phase III bond release for Federal permit CO -0101A was granted on January <br />29, 2004. <br />Ill. The Proposed Action <br />This mining plan action consists of a mining plan modification for Federal lease <br />COC -62920. Specifically, the mining plan action proposed by National King Coal, LLC <br />consists of: <br />