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ment, this land use is feasible. One of the soils found here <br />(Nihill) exhibits no constraints to such development while the • <br />other (Heldt) exhibits a shrink-swell clay and subsequent low <br />strength that is commonly encountered and engineered for in <br />Colorado. <br />3.1.3 Previous Mining <br />The coal seams which exist in the permit area proposed by NCEC have <br />been mined by a number of operations. At the present time, all of <br />these operations have been abandoned and no mining activity is <br />present in the permit area. <br />The earliest recorded mining activity within the permit area was <br />that of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company's, Coal Ridge #1 Mine <br />which mined from 1888 to 1892. Since then, mining activity <br />occurred for much of the time through 1962 when the Newcastle- <br />Vulcan Mine terminated its operations. No other mining activity <br />has taken place in the permit area since 1962 (Table 3.1-1) except <br />for a NCEC hydraulic test Conducted in 1981 and the rock tunnel <br />excavation in 1985-86. <br />Upon examining the long history of previous mining within the <br />permit area, it should be noted at this point that the Newcastle- <br />Vulcan Mine used the drifts established by the Vulcan #9 Mine and <br />merely extended its length to a point where it contacted the Allen <br />Seam. It should also be noted that the Gem Mine and South Canyon <br />#2 Mine are one and the same, since an ownership change in 1992 <br />resulted in the name change. <br />All of the mining activity which previously existed in the permit <br />area used conventional methods of mining. The coal was drilled, <br />shot and loaded by hand or slushers into railcars and transported <br />to the railhead or local markets. The only variation in mining <br />technique was that some operations used the room and pillar method, <br />NCEC - Coal Ridge ~1 3-4 ASC/1145/900301 <br />