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• <br />-6- <br />Upland areas on both sides of the Roaring Fork Valley comprise parts of <br />the White River National Forest. Most of the valley bottoms and <br />5ldeslopes are under private ownership. The Roaring Fork Valley is a <br />natural geographic corridor between Glenwood Springs, where the Roaring <br />Fork and Colorado Rivers meet, and the town of Aspen, which is directly <br />west of the Continental Divide. Within this corridor, State Nlghway 82 <br />connects Glenwood Springs and Aspen, which are the county seats of <br />Garfield and Pitkln county, respectively. <br />Oestription of the Operation and Reclamation Plan <br />The mine will extract coal from two seams. Mine portal No. 1 serves as <br />access to the "A" seam, while mine portal No. 3 serves as access to the <br />Anderson seam. <br />In Mtne No. 1, room and pillar mining was used to prepare the mine for <br />longwall operation. Longwall production started August 4, 1981. The <br />longwall is located at the south end of Stoney Ridge and is retreating <br />northward at a rate of 61 feet per week. The pitch of the longwall is 26 <br />degrees westerly and has a face length of 330 feet. Peak production is <br />2800 tons per day. .The life of this longwall operation is expected to be <br />20 years. <br />Hine No. 3 currently uses eight continuous mining machines. If the Mine <br />No. 1 longwall operation proves profitable, longwall techniques may be <br />used in Mine No. 3 by 1984. <br />Coal from the No. 1 and No. 3 mines is conveyed to a central surge bin <br />and breaker by way of a 240. foot and 1880 foot elevated conveyor system, <br />respectively. The No. 3 conveyor is enclosed on the underside to prevent <br />any coal from falling into or ad,Jacent to North Thompson Creek. Adjacent <br />to the breaker are the office area, two coal storage silos, a wash plant, <br />and a closed system washwater recycling system. A small amount of coal <br />is occasionally stored in an open stockpile adjacent to the coal silos. <br />Fifteen hundred feet east of the wash plant is the coal refuse disposal <br />area. Coal refuse from the wash plant system, as well as underground <br />development waste, is disposed of at this location. Coal from the mine <br />storage silo is loaded Into haul trucks. These trucks transport the coal <br />to the loadout truck dump by way of County Road 108. <br />The railroad line parallels the east bank of the Roaring Fork River. <br />Normally, coal haul trucks from the mine would have to travel in and <br />adjacent to the town of Carbondale. 7o avoid this, the mine has <br />constructed a conveyor system to transport coal directly to the railroad <br />line. <br />Coal is unloaded into a truck dump bin-60 ton hopper on the west side of <br />the Roaring Fork River 2 miles west of Carbondale. From here, the coal <br />1s conveyed 2051 feet over the Roaring Fork River to a surge bin adjacent <br />to the railroad loop. The conveyor is fully enclosed to prevent coal <br />spills Into or adjacent to the river. <br /> <br />