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3. OSMRE must decide whether or not to approve an application to renew Federal Mine Permit CO -106A. The <br />permit would reauthorize operations associated with the mining of federal coal from the areas within Federal <br />Coal Lease COC62920 where the surface of the land is under the ownership of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, <br />but outside of the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation. <br />4. The DOI Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management must decide whether to: 1) approve; 2) <br />approve with conditions; or 3) deny a mining plan modification to incorporate the lease expansion into Surface <br />Mining Control and Reclamation Act Permit C-1981-035. <br />BACKGROUND <br />GCC began conducting operations at the King II Coal Mine in 2007. King II is an underground room -and -pillar coal <br />mine currently consisting of approximately 26 acres of surface facilities on state -leased lands and approximately 565 <br />acres of underground disturbance so far. The low sulfur, ash, and alkali content coal is mined from the Menefee <br />Formation and used primarily to fuel cement plants and a narrow gauge railroad. The coal is transported by truck via La <br />Plata County Road 120 (under La Plata County Class II Land Use Permit #2012-0089) and Colorado State Highway <br />140 to either a railhead in Gallup, New Mexico or directly to market. <br />In 2014, the King 11 Mine was authorized to produce up to 1.3 million tons of coal annually through federal, State of <br />Colorado, and private mineral leases, with the majority of production under Federal Coal Lease COC62920. At the <br />present mining rate, it is estimated that the coal in the current lease area would be exhausted in less than three years. <br />The additional tracts would extend the life of the current mine by an estimated five to seven years. On July 16, 2016, <br />GCC was granted an emergency exclusion from a pause in the issuance of new leases and lease modifications under <br />Secretarial Order 3338, Discretionary Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to Modernize the Federal Coal <br />Program (Section 6a). The exclusion enables GCC to pursue the lease modification while the Federal Government <br />conducts a review of the federal coal program. <br />HOW TO COMMENT <br />Submit your substantive comments and information related to this proposal in writing to the BLM by February 05, <br />2017. Your name and address must be included in order for your submission to be considered. All submissions <br />received will be forwarded to OSMRE. OSMRE may hold informational meetings, at which time additional comments <br />would be accepted. <br />Email: coalcommenttresrios@blm.gov <br />Postal Service: BLM Tres Rios Field Office <br />Attn: King II Coal Mine EA <br />29211 Highway 184 <br />Dolores, CO 81323 <br />By including your address, phone number, email address, or other personally identifying information in your comment, <br />you should be aware that your entire comment, including your personally identifying information, may be made <br />publically available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying <br />information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. <br />If you have questions about the BLM coal program or analysis, please contact James Blair at (970) 882-7296. For <br />questions regarding the OSMRE regulatory process, please contact Paul Clark at (303) 293-5065. <br />Sincerely, <br />Lonny R. Bailey Marcelo Calle <br />Deputy State Director, Energy, Lands and Minerals Manager, Program Support Division <br />BLM OSMRE <br />