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2 <br />SECTION I -HISTORY <br />The Golden Eagle Mine is located in Las Animas County, Colorado approximately 23 miles west of <br />Trinidad along State Highway 12. The Golden Eagle mine began operations under the name of the <br />Maxwell Mine, originally permitted and operated by Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (CF&I). In <br />January of 1984, Wyoming Fuels, a KN Energy subsidiary, purchased the mine. In March of 1993, the <br />permittee and operator changed to Basin Resources Inc. (BRI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Entech, <br />Inc., and a subsidiary of Montana Power Company. Due to difficult mining conditions and economic <br />factors, the mine officially shut down operations on December 31, 1995. During 1996, all facilities were <br />removed, backfilling and grading was completed, and the disturbed areas were topsoiled, seeded and <br />mulched. In July 2001, the parent company ownership of BRI changed from Entech (Montana Power) <br />to Colorado Westmoreland, Inc. In March 2008, the permit was transferred from Colorado Westmoreland <br />to New Elk Coal Company, LLC. Mine -related activities continue to be solely focused on reclamation, <br />bond release, monitoring, and maintenance. <br />During active mining operations, the mine used both continuous miners and a 600 -foot wide longwall <br />mining machine to extract coal from the Maxwell seam. No longwall mining occurred under Highway 12 <br />or under the adjacent Purgatoire River alluvial valley floor. However, development mining did occur in <br />this area to allow access to reserves to the north of the highway. Two complete longwall panels and a <br />portion of a third panel were mined north of the highway. Thirty-one mine drill holes and shafts that <br />penetrated the mine workings were converted to an industrial land use to allow for methane gas extraction <br />from the workings. This conversion allows for orderly gas extraction without additional disturbance to the <br />environment and allows development of a resource that would otherwise go to waste. <br />The mine site is located in a plateau area, with elevations ranging from 7,000- 7,600 feet above mean sea level. <br />Land use in the area consists of cropland and pastureland on valley floors, with rangeland dominating the upland <br />areas. The recent development of ranchettes and coal bed methane extraction has become an extended use of <br />these traditionally remote areas. <br />The Golden Eagle Mine is located on the western limb of the Raton Basin. The Raton Basin is a broad, <br />asymmetric syncline, the axis of which trends generally north -south. All mining activities occurred in the <br />Raton Formation, where the Maxwell seam is located. The Poison Canyon formation unconformably <br />overlies the Raton Formation and has a thickness of approximately 200 feet in the mine area. <br />Unconsolidated Quaternary alluvial and colluvial deposits overlie the Raton Formation in the low-lying <br />areas. <br />The Raton Formation dips approximately two degrees east-northeast. The permit area contains one steep, normal <br />fault trending east-northeast with vertical displacement of 25 feet. <br />Golden Eagle MT7 December 2016 Prepared by: R. Reilley <br />