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• <br />(4) comments and recommendations or concurrence of <br />other Federal agencies, and the public, <br />(5) the findings and recommendations of the Bureau of <br />Land Management regarding the resource recovery and <br />protection plan, the Federal lease requirements, and <br />the Mineral Leasing Act, and <br />(6) the findings and recommendations of the Colorado <br />Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG) regarding the <br />PAP and the Colorado State program. <br />NKC's proposal requires no special conditions to comply with <br />Federal law. <br />r <br />L_J <br />The Assistant Secretary's approval of these mining plan <br />modifications will authorize mining of an additional 1.5 <br />million tons of Federal coal. Approval of these mining plan <br />actions will increase the number of acres of Federal coal in <br />the approved mining plan areas by 260 acres to a new total <br />of 862 as shown on the map included with this decision <br />document. No Federal surface lands will be included in the <br />mining plan areas as a result of this action. The State's <br />permit area at the King Coal Mine will contain about 1584 <br />acres. Mining is expected to continue for 10 years under <br />Colorado Permit No. CO-81-035 and these proposed mining plan <br />actions. <br />III. Background <br />The King Coal underground coal mine is located in La Plata <br />County, Colorado. The mine has been in operation since <br />1941. About 11 surface acres are disturbed within the <br />State's permit area. The mining operations use room-and- <br />pillar mining methods. The Menefee Coal Bed 1 coal seam is <br />mined at an average production rate of about 0.2 million <br />tons per year. <br />The King Coal Mine mining plan for Federal leases C-29125 <br />and P-058300 was initially approved on May 20, 1982. Since <br />that approval there have been no mining plan modifications <br />for those Federal leases. Anew mining plan was approved on <br />July 22, 1992 for Federal lease COC-49465. In addition, <br />National King Coal is mining Indian lands coal under Federal <br />Permit No. CO-0101 issued on August 30, 1995. <br />• <br />IV. Review Process <br />The DMG reviewed the PAP under the Colorado State <br />the Federal lands program (30 CFR Chapter VII, <br />Subchapter D), and the cooperative agreement (30 <br />906.30). <br />program, <br />CFR §30 CFR <br />2 <br />