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Surface facilities at King II mine. <br />Coal is hauled by truck from the mine. <br />In terms of its federal coal, the company produces from coal lease COC -62920, which <br />was issued by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (`BLM") on November 1, 2002. When <br />offered for sale in 2001, the BLM disclosed that this coal lease contained "7,049,000 tons" of <br />recoverable coal reserves. 66 Fed. Reg. 41263 (Aug. 7, 2001). <br />The mining of federal coal can only be authorized by the Secretary of the U.S. <br />Department of the Interior. To this end, under SMCRA, the Interior Secretary may authorize, <br />where appropriate, the mining of leased federally owned coal through a "Mining Plan." See 30 <br />U.S.C. § 1273(c) and 30 C.F.R. § 746.14. A legally compliant Mining Plan is an absolute <br />prerequisite to an entity's ability to mine leased federal coal. Regulations implementing <br />SMCRA explicitly state that, "[n]o person shall conduct surface coal mining and reclamation <br />