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• II. Background <br />The King Coal underground coal mine is located in La Plata County, Colorado. The mine <br />has been in operation since 1941. The life of the currently approved mining operations <br />within the approved permit area is estimated [o be 7 years. The mining operations use <br />room-and-pillar mining methods. The average annual production rate is 0.2 million tons <br />per year from the Menefee Coal Bed No. I coal seam, bttt the maximum production rate <br />could reach the approved 0.3 million tons per year. <br />The mining plan for Federal leases C-29125 and P-058300 at the King Coal Mine was <br />initially approved on June 30, 1982. Since that approval subsequent mining plan <br />modifications were approved on July 22, 1992, October 22, 1997 and December 23, <br />1998. In addition, National King Coal, LLC mined coal on Indian lands under Federal <br />Permit No. CO-0101 issued on August 30, 1995. <br />The State's permit area covers 1790 acres. <br />A total of 1,048 acres of Federal coal exist in the currently approved mining plan area. <br />A total of 4.2 million tons of Federal coal exist in the currently approved mining plan <br />area. <br />• No Federal surface lands exist in the currently approved mining plan area. <br />The postmining land use within the currently approved mining plan area is rangeland, <br />pastureland and crop land. <br />III. The Proposed Action <br />This mitring plan action consists of a mining plan modification for Federal lease COC- <br />60941. Specifically, the mining plan modification proposed by NKC consists of: <br />expansion of mining into an additional 160 acres of Federal lease COC-60941. <br />The life of the mining operations is expected to continue for 7 years under Colorado <br />Permit No. CO-81-035 and this proposed mining plan modification. <br />The average annual production rate and the maximum production rate would not change. <br />The approved State permit area would increase by 320 acres from its present 1,726 acres <br />to a new total of 2,046 acres. <br />Surface disturbance within the approved State permit area will not increase. <br />• Approval of this mining plan modification will increase the number of acres of Federal <br />coal in the approved mining plan area by 160 acres [o a new total of 1,208 acres as shown <br />on the map included with this decision document. <br />