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Descrintion of the Operations and Reclamation Plan <br />The Somerset Mine, now the Sanborn Creek Mine, has been in operation since 1902. Operations <br />have evolved from the eazlier hand method of mining, to continuous mining methods, and, <br />finally, to longwall mining. <br />The conventional room and pillar mining system used continuous miners, shuttle cazs, conveyors <br />and/or rail cars. All coal was moved to the surface using rail cars. Approximately 12 to 14 feet <br />of the B seam were mined in the development and retreat cycle. Annual production in the mine <br />was approximately 900,000 tons per yeaz. <br />Once at the surface, the rail cazs dumped the coal at the dump station where it was conveyed to <br />the tipple. The coal was crushed at the tipple then conveyed to the coal storage silo. The silo, a <br />cylindrical cement structure, straddles the Denver and Rio Grande Western Raih•oad track and <br />loads unit trains. <br />The Sanbom Creek addition to the Somerset Mine, now the Sanborn Creek and Elk Creek Mines, <br />is located approximately one mile east of the town of Somerset. Initially, this part of the mine <br />was developed and mined using conventional room and pillaz techniques with the same <br />conventional equipment as previously discussed, except that conveyors were used in place of rail <br />cars. Annual production of this part of the mine was projected to be about 750,000 tons per year. <br />Upon opening the portals, coal was fast trucked to the tipple at the Ells Creek yazd. A conveyor <br />system was built while developing the fu•st part of the Sanborn Creek addition. The conveyor <br />system was used instead of haul trucks to convey coal from the Sanbom Creek portals to the <br />tipple at the Elk Creek yard. <br />The Sanbom Creek East Tract and the East Tract modification, aze located adjacent to the <br />original Sanborn Creek addition on the eastern boundary and is an underground continuation of <br />the Sanbom workings. No additional surface disturbance was required. Method of operations <br />and production rate projections remained the same. <br />With the approval of Technical Revision No. 24 on February 15, 1995, the coal production level <br />at the mine was increased to 1.3 million tons per year. The production level at the loadout was <br />increased to 1.6 million tons per yeaz. The mine plan was also changed to accommodate the <br />increase in production. Continuous mining was still the mining method used. <br />With the approval of Technical Revision No. 29 on July 15, 1997, Oxbow Mining, Inc went to <br />the longwall mining method. The anticipated annual coal production was increased from 1.3 <br />million tons per year to 4 million tons per year. To handle this increase in production, this <br />revision also approved Oxbow Mining's plans to improve the coal handling facilities, increase <br />the coal stockpile size, construct a new coal waste disposal site, move existing or build nevi <br />support facilities and modify the train loadout for the new production rate. <br />Development waste (gob) was disposed of on the surface in the approved gob pile on the Elk <br />10 <br />