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The mining system was conventional room and pillar mining using continuous <br />miners, shuttle cars, conveyors and/or rail cars. All coal was moved to the <br />surface using rail cars. Approximately 12 to 14 feet of the B-Seam was mined <br />in the development and retreat cycle. Annual production in the mine was <br />approximately 900,000 tons/Year. <br />Once at the surface the rail cars dumped the coal at the dump station where it <br />was conveyed to the tipple. The coal was crushed at the tipple then conveyed <br />to the coal storage silo. The silo, a cylindrical cement structure, straddles <br />the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad track and loads unit trains. <br />The Sanborn Creek addition to the Somerset Mine will be developed <br />approximately one mile east of the town of Somerset. This part of the mine <br />will be developed and mined using conventional room and pillar techniques with <br />the same conventional equipment as previously discussed. Annual production of <br />this part of the mine is projected to be 750,000 tons per year. Upon opening <br />the portals, coal will at first be trucked to the tipple at the Elk Creek <br />Yard. The trucks will travel on the haul road that will be built to the north <br />of the rail line. A conveyor system will be built while developing the first <br />part of the Sanborn Creek mine addition. Once the conveyor system is <br />finished, it will be used (instead of haul trucks) to convey coal from the <br />Sanborn Creek Portals to the tipple at the Elk Creek Yard. <br />Development waste (gob) will be disposed of on the surface in the presently <br />approved gob pile on the Elk Creek Yard. Non-combustible mine development <br />waste will be disposed of underground in finished "C" seam mine workings in a <br />Mine Safety and Health Administration approved fashion. <br />As the mine has been in operation since 1902 much of the disturbed area <br />associated with the mine was affected prior to the effective date of the <br />Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and the Colorado Surface <br />Coal Mining Reclamation Act. Baseline environmental factors were not measured <br />and no topsoil was salvaged prior to previous disturbance. Disturbances which <br />have been conducted since the effective date of the Act have been permitted <br />and conducted in compliance with the Act and Regulations. These activities <br />include the Hubbard Creek Ventilation Fan #2 facility and the 3 Dip Methane <br />Degas Wellfield. All other areas of disturbance at the mine occurred prior to <br />the effective date of the Act. <br />11.5. Steel conducted a vegetative survey of unaffected land adjacent to the <br />surface disturbed areas for the purpose of developing a reclamation plan for <br />the surface disturbed area. The surface will be returned to the undeveloped <br />land use classification which is the present status of adjacent lands and the <br />pre-mining land use of the disturbed area. <br />Somerset Mining Company conducted a detailed soil survey and vegetation survey <br />of the areas to be affected by development of the Sanborn Creek portals, haul <br />road and conveyor facilities. These surveys indicated that approximately 8850 <br />cubic yards of soil could be salvaged from these areas and that vegetation in <br />the portal area and along the conveyor/haul road corridor was substantially <br />the same as the surrounding vegetative types. Soil salvaged from these areas <br />will all be used for reclamation activities. However, soil on the new Sanborn <br />-8- <br />