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Introduction Mountain Coal Company, a subsidiary of ARCO Coal Company, proposes a permit expansion involving US Forest Service (USFS) lands for its West Elk Mine in Gunnison County, Colorado. The West Elk Mine is an underground coal mine, and surface disturbance associated _ _ with this mine expansion will be m;n;mal. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the lead.. federal agency in this action, because it administers the minerals. Metcalf Archaeological Consultanu, Inc. (MAC), was contracted by Mountain Coal Company to gather and evaluate the available cultural resource data for these proposed exploration azeas in the Gunnison National Forest as pazt of an environmental assessment. No new fieldwork was considered necessary for the environmental assessment However, a principal objective of the assessment was to identify physical settings that merit additional investigations. The permit expanuion azea includes sections 14, 22, 23, 26, and portions of sections 10, 11, and 15, in Township 13 South, Range 90 West (Figure 1). The majority of the terrain consists of very steep slopes with little intact deposition, and little potential for in situ cultural resources. The permit expansion will involve minimal surface disturbance, including exploratory drilling and surface vents. Data for this assessment includes intensive surveys of fifteen drill localities and six access corridors within or closely adjacent to this study azea conducted by MAC over the past two yeazs (Spath 1993, 1994; Shields 1994), as well as several other surveys in • neazby comparable settings. These samples have included all of the landforms and environmental settings within the proposed exploration azea. Few cultural resources have been found by these and earlier investigations, and those that have been documented have been principally along the valley floor or lazger side canyons. Most of the azea of proposed expansion has little potential for significant cultural resources, and it is recommended that intensive cultural resource inventory of these azeas would be unproductive. However, it is recommended that cultural resource inventories be completed for any proposed actions in the sagebrush flats along the upper tributaries of Raven Gulch in Section 23, compazable settings on the ridge in the southeast quarter of Section 14. This includes all azeas of level to gently sloping terrain on the West Flatiron. Affected Environment The study azea is located southeast of Somerset in the western foothills of the West Elk Mountains. The North Fork of the Gunnison River is located at the north edge of this azea. Several small drainages flow directly to the river from the study azea. These include Box Canyon, Sylvester Gulch, Deep Creek, and unnamed tributaries of Raven Gulch. Topography of the azea is generally steep and rugged. Soils aze predominantly unstable residual and colluvial sandy loams underlain by sandstones and shales of the Mesaverde Formation (Tweto 1979). Beds of Mancos shale aze also complexly intertongued with the Mesaverde Formation in the vicinity. Although sandstone outcrops aze common in the azea, they tend to be fiiable and do not form rockshelters or stable rock faces favorable for rock art.