1996-01-26_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1980007

Home Browse Search

The Upper Coal Bearing (Paonia) member consists of 200 to 500 feet of gray shales, interbedded, buff-colored, lenticular sandstones, and coals. The top of this member is generally considered to be capped by a massive, cliff-forming sandstone. Three coal horizons have been identified in the Upper Coal member, the D (Oliver) horizon, the E (Hawk's Nest) horizon, and the F horizon. The D horizon occurs directly above the massive sandstone of the Lower Coal Bearing member and contains three seams. This horizon is currently mined in the Orchard Valley Mine. The E horizon occurs about 130 feet above the D horizon and contains two coal seams. This horizon has been mined at the Hawk's Nest Mine and was historically mined at the Blue Ribbon Mine. The West Elk Mine plans to mine the E Seam in the future. It will not be mined on Jumbo Mountain because the E Seam is split and comprised of several thin (< 5 ft.) coal benches which are separated by rock partings. The F horizon contains two coal seams and has been mined at the West Elk Mine. At the mine site, the coal is immediately overlain and underlain by shale. Coal seams of the F horizon do not exist to the north of the North Fork of the Gunnison River in thicknesses sufficient for mining. In the Jumbo Mountain area, the F Seam thins to less than five feet in thickness and is of limited aerial extent. Therefore, MCC does not plan to mine this seam in Jumbo Mountain. Overlying the Upper Coal member is the Barren member of the Mesaverde Group. This unit consists of interbedded sandstones, siltstones, shales, and coals. The unit is not thought to be of marine origin and, as a result, the sandstones and the coals are highly lenticular, discontinuous, and of limited lateral extent in outcrop. This unit ranges up to 1,500 feet thick and outcrops throughout most of the five-year permit area. The Mesaverde Formation is unconformably overlain by the Tertiary Age Rudy or Wasatch Formation. This formation consists of red to buff-colored shales, red sandstones, and red to gray conglomerates. The sediments of this formation are weathered volcanic rocks. The Ohio Creek conglomerate is the basal unit within the formation and is 100 to 200 feet thick. The alluvium of the North Fork of the Gunnison River consists of Quaternary Age deposits of mixed coarse sand, cobbles and boulders. These coarse sediments are composed primarily of igneous and metamorphic rock types, and have their source area in the headwaters and upper reaches of the North Fork. This coarse alluvium is capped by finer sands and silts. The North Fork alluvium in the area of the Hawk's Nest, Bear, West Elk and Somerset Mines is fairly narrow in width and is between 50 and 70 feet thick. About a mile below the town of Somerset, Colorado, the width of alluvium increases while the thickness of alluvium decreases to about 35 feet. Since the three main minable seams (B, E, and F) on West Elk's property directly overlie one another, their structural characteristics are virtually identical. The F Seam strikes north 60 degrees west and dips three to five degrees northeast across the lease block. In the Jumbo Mountain area, the B Seam has an average dip of 4.6 degrees in a north 25 degrees east direction. The major cleat orientation within the F and B Seams is north 70 degrees east. This face cleat is prominent and consistent throughout the existing F and B Seam workings. Fracture sets and cleat orientations of the E Seam are also the same. The major clear direction in the nearby Bear and Somerset mines is from North 70 to 75 degrees east and is probably representative of the face cleat direction in the Jumbo Mountain area. Only minor faulting of limited vertical displacement has been observed in the Blue Ribbon, Bear, and Hawk's Nest Mines. However, in the Orchard Valley Mine, a fault with a 9