2018-09-04_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1980007

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27 A second episode of elevated levels of gas occurred in the mine in late 2005, necessitating the drilling of several boreholes from the surface to the B Seam workings in the Box Canyon area. Approval was obtained for the construction of roads and drilling the boreholes. Water and foam were pumped down into the workings and mining resumed within approximately three months. The mine plan for the E Seam is shown on Map 51 of the PAP. MCC maintains active development entries in the E Seam in leases COC-56447, D-044569, and C-1362. These entries provide access to E seam longwall panels 1 through 12 (LWE1-12), in lease C-1362 in the South of Divide area, as approved in PR-10, and in lease COC-67232 in the Dry Fork area, as approved in PR-12; and to panels LWSS1-4 in modified leases C-1362 and COC-67232 in the Sunset Trails area, as approved in PR-15. As of mid-2018, mining has been completed in panels LWE1-6, and is in progress, from east to west, in panel LWE7 as of the date of these findings. MCC access the E seam through the mine’s existing F to B seam slopes and utilize the existing surface facilities near State Highway 133; consequently, no additional surface facilities or associated surface disturbance were proposed in PR-10 or 12. Surface disturbance and drilling of methane drainage wells in E Seam panel 1 was approved in TR-111. E Seam mining of longwall panels 10, 11, and 12 was approved in PR-6 and is planned to occur prior to mining the underlying B Seam panels. No major buildings, major structures, occupied dwellings, cemeteries, parks, railroads or highways overlie the coal to be mined. Two reservoirs lie close to the F Seam outcrop; however, neither is directly over the coal to be mined. Surface facilities at the West Elk Mine are shown on the Map 53 series of the PAP. State Highway 133 provides the access to the main facilities area of the mine. A haul road joins the highway east of the Lower Refuse Pile (LRP) and serves as the access to most facilities and the mine portals. An old haul road accesses the silo storage area and other lower mine facilities, which is now considered an access road. Other access roads include the middle-mine facilities road and the Sylvester Gulch fan road, and the Sylvester Gulch extension. The Lone Pine Gulch road has been designated as a light-use road and provides access to the former site of a ventilation fan. Power to the mine is supplied via existing lines of the Delta-Montrose Electric Association. Power is stepped down at a substation in the main mine facilities area for powering underground operations and the surface facilities. Ventilation in the mine is provided by a fan in Sylvester Gulch (PR-7), and a vent shaft in Deer Creek, just to the east of Minnesota Reservoir (TR-109), as well as numerous Mine Ventilation Boreholes (MVBs) which are constructed in advance of mining and are operated so as to control the partial pressure of methane in the air inside the mine. Between 1995 and 2001 ventilation to the B Seam workings was provided by the Lone Pine Fan. Mining ceased in the Lone Pine portion of the mine in early 2001 and the workings served by the fan portal were sealed off underground. The Lone Pine Portals were sealed in 2001 (TR-93). MCC occasionally uses a relatively small quantity of explosives for blasting for underground construction. The explosives are stored in an explosives magazine located in the main facilities area of the mine.