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Summary <br /> The Review Process <br /> The New Elk Mine was previously known as the Allen Mine, which began operations in 1951. <br /> The New Elk Mine operated under an interim permit issued by the Colorado Mined Land <br /> Reclamation Division (previous name of the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety) on <br /> January 25, 1978,pursuant to the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Act. CF&I Steel <br /> Corporation, the previous owners, submitted an application for a new permit on February 4, <br /> 1981,pursuant to Section 34-33-109 of the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act. <br /> The Division reviewed that application and a proposed decision was issued on December 19, <br /> 1983. <br /> The New Elk mine permit has been transferred on four occasions. Permit rights were transferred <br /> from CF&I Steel Corporation to Wyoming Fuel Company on January 31, 1984. Permit rights <br /> were transferred from Wyoming Fuel Company to Basin Resources, Inc. (BRI) on March 29, <br /> 1993 (SO-01). In April 1997,permit rights were transferred from BRI to Picketwire Processing, <br /> LLC (SO-02). And finally, the permit was transferred from Picketwire Processing, LLC to <br /> NECC on March 19, 2007 (SO-03). In March 2010, NECC provided information that Cline <br /> Mining Corporation had purchased NECC (MR-91). NECC provided notification that NECC <br /> would continue as the permittee, but TK Mining Services LLC would be the mine operator(MR- <br /> 98 approved November 2011). TK Mining Services, LLC was removed as mine operator, and <br /> NECC resumed its status as mine operator (MR-108 approved March 2012). <br /> This is the seventh renewal of the permit since it was originally issued. In accordance with Rule <br /> 2.08.5, the Division notified NECC (via letter dated May 16, 2018) of the permittee's need to <br /> submit a complete application for permit renewal by September 1, 2018. The permit renewal <br /> application was received by the Division on August 29, 2018 from NECC. On September 7, <br /> 2018, the Division called the application complete, and notifications of the filing of a complete <br /> application for a permit renewal were sent to the applicant, the Las Animas County Planning <br /> Department, the Las Animas County Commissioners, the Colorado Office of Archaeology & <br /> Historic Preservation, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado <br /> Parks and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and several owners of the land within the <br /> permit boundary. NECC published notice of the application for renewal once a week for four <br /> weeks in The Chronicle-News beginning on February 20, 2019 and ending March 13, 2019. No <br /> public comments were received as a result of the public notice, and no issues were raised as a <br /> result of agency notification letters. The Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation wrote <br /> a letter to say they did not object to the proposed renewal of the New Elk Mine permit. <br /> The Division forwarded adequacy concerns to NECC on the following dates: 7 November 2018, <br /> 20 May 2019, and 18 July 2019. NECC responses were received by DRMS on the following <br /> dates: 12 April 2019, 16 July 2019, and 25 October 2019. At the time of the writing of these <br /> findings, all adequacy concerns were addressed to the satisfaction of the Division. <br /> Applicant Violator System (AVS) checks were conducted by OSM on October 11, 2018 and <br /> New Elk Mine <br /> November 2019 Findings for RN-07 <br /> 3 <br />