GENERAL30354

• Permit No: C1980007
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Name: Federal Lease COC-56447 Decision Document
• Permit Index Doc Type: Other Permits
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

EIS, 1989; the Amended Land and Resource Management Plan - Grand Mesa,
Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, 1991; and the Grand `:esa,
• Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests Oil and Cas Leasing FEIS. 1993.
A brief description of the specific resources that are e-'it:~in the Box
Canyon Tract is detailed below.
Minerals
The Box Canyon Tract lies in the Paonia-Somerset coal field which
contains medium to high coal development potential deposits. The main coal
beds within the area are found in the llpper Cretaceous Mesaverde Formation,
which is overlain by the early Tertiary Wasatch Formation and underlain by
the Upper Cretaceous Mancos Shale. The tyro principle mineable coal seams
are in ascending order, the "B" and "D/E" seams. Other seams within the
tract, A, C, and F, are considered too thin (less than 6 feet) and
discontinuous to mine.
The Upper B seam ranges in thickness from 9 to 16 feet. The average
analysis of the coal seam is 5.666 moisture, 7.668 ash, 0.578 sulfur and
12,975 Btu's per pound. The tract contains an estimated 67 million tons of
in-place B coal seam reserves. The D/E seam ranges in thickness from 6 co
12 feet. A large portion of the D/E reserves are not mineable because of
coal thickness and known conditions of poor roof and/or partings creating
• difficulties with extraction. The D/E seam analytical data' averaged around
as follows: 9.316 ash, 6.456 moisture, 0.576 sulfur and 12,162 Btu's. The
tract contains an estimated 17 million tons of in-place D/E seam reserves.
. The total in-place coal rese^aes are approximately 84 million cons of which
37 million cons are recoverable.
Outcropping on the trot= is the Tertiary Wasatch Formation, Upper
Cretaceous Mesaverde Formation and Quaternary deposits. The Quaternary
deposits are an unsorted mi::ture of soil and rock formed by various
mass-wasting processes as landslides, earth flows, soil creep and debris
avalanches. They also include river deposits and slope colluvium as well
as Quaternary unconsolidated deposits derived from the Wasatch Formation.
The coal bearing sedimentary strata of the Mesaverde Formation is
relatively flat lying with a regional dip of 3.5 degrees to the
north-northeast. Local dips of up to 7.0 degrees are also found.
Exploration drilling on and in the area of the tract is not adequate to
precisely locate the trace of any fault or other finite structural feature
within the tract. However, USCS Hap C-115, compiled by R. Dunrud shows
lineaments visible from aerial photography along Sylvester Gulch and
parallel to several drainages. The overburden overlying the B seam in the
application area ranges from 250 feet at the northern boundary of the tract
to approximately 2,200 feet under West Flatiron Mesa.
The potential for the discovery of conventional resources of oil and
gas under the leased area is very slight. Dr}' wells have been drilled to
the Dakota Sandstone :. :ev mi'_es co the southwest and co the northwest of
Che permit area. There is a possibility of finding methane in the coal
seams. There are no oil ar.d gas leases located on or near the application
area.
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