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The portal facilities area neaz the confluence of Elk Creek and the North Fork is located at the <br />contact of the alluvium of the North Fork and steep upland sedimentary formations. <br />Sanbom Creek Tract portal facilities are just east of Sanborn Creek or approximately one mile <br />east of the town of Somerset. <br />Description of the Operations and Reclamation Plan <br />The Somerset Mine, now the Sanbom Creek Mine, has been in operation since 1902. Operations <br />have evolved from the earlier 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 cars, conveyors <br />and/or rail cars. All coal was moved to the surface using rail cazs. 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 year. <br />Once at the surface, the rail cars 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 Railroad track and <br />loads unit trains. <br />The Sanborn Creek addition to the Somerset Mine, now the 5anbom 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 pillar techniques with the same <br />conventional equipment as previously discussed, except that conveyors were used in place of rail <br />cazs. 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 first trucked to the tipple at the Elk Creek yard. A conveyor <br />system was built while developing the first part of the Sanbom Creek addition. The conveyor <br />system was used instead of haul trucks to convey coal from the Sanborn Creek portals to the <br />tipple at the Elk Creek yard. <br />The Sanborn Creek East Tract and the East Tract modification, are located adjacent to the <br />original Sanborn Creek addition on the eastern boundary and is an underground continuation of <br />the Sanborn 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 ]oadout was <br />increased to 1.6 million tons per year. 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 ]ongwall mining method. The anticipated annual coal production was increased from 1.3 <br />10 <br />