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602 ~ p- <br />t Consecvation Division MQr(~ '/ ~~`~ <br />Memorandum Federal Coal Emergency Lease <br />• Application C-29125 <br />To: Acting Area kining Supervisor, CRMA <br />.. <br />Through: Daniel A. Job in, Area Geologist, CRMA <br />From: David L. Caakill, Geologist, CRMA <br />Subject: Report on the geology and coal reserve of coal lease application <br />C-29125 of National King Coal, Inc., ec. 32 T. 35 H., R. 11 W., <br />HMPM, La Plata County, Colorado <br />SIZE AND LOCATION--The subject emergency lease application by National King <br />Coal, Ina., involves the addition of 120 acres in the SL7k see. 72, T. 75 N., <br />R. 11 W,, NMPH, to the adjoining King Coal Hine Federal coal lease located <br />about 4 miles southwest of Hesperus in the Hay Gulch coal district, La Plata <br />County, Colorado. The additional area is•reques[ed by Che applicant in order <br />to maintain [heir existing mining operation (see Exhibit A, and National King <br />Coal, Int., 1979). The King Coal lease and the application area cover parts <br />of the Hesperus and adjoining Kline 7~i-minute topographic quadrangles (fig. 1). <br />The subject lands are within the Durango KRCRA. <br />SURFACE FEATURES--The Hay Culeh coal district lies on a dissected plateau <br />cut by moderately steep-sided canyons and valleys with a topographic relief <br />of about 500 feet. The lease application area ranges from about 7,370 feet <br />in Pine Gulch to about 7,710 feet in elevation on the divide separating Pine <br />Gulch from Hay Gulch. The present King Coal Mine entrance is reached by a <br />paved county highway in Hay Gulch. • <br />GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE--The lease application area lies about 7 miles south of <br />the La Plata Mountains, a domal uplift that has tilted [he sedimentary strata <br />in the ltay Gulch area about 20-4° in a south to southwesterly direction. <br />The interstream divides in the Hay Gulch area correspond to the regional dip <br />of this monoclinal structure. Significant faults have not been reported in <br />the Hay Culeh coal district, but local flexures in the sedimentary strata <br />indicate that faults of minor displacement may be present. Structure contours <br />shown on figure 2, are drawn a[ Che approximate horizon of Che principal coal <br />bed in the lease application area. <br />STRATICRAPHY--The general coal stratigraphy of the Hay Gulch area is shown on <br />[igurea 2-3, and Exhibit 8. Strata exposed in [he present King Coal lease and <br />adjoining application area are assigned to the Mesavcrde group which here con- <br />sists pf the Cliff House Sandstone at [he top, the coal-bearing Menefee Formation, <br />and the Point Lookout Sandstone a[ the base. The Mesavcrde Croup of this region <br />may correlate with Che Iles Formation and part of the Llilliams Fork Formation <br />which ere coal-bearing in other parts of western Colorado. <br /> <br />November 1993• <br />