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The permit was transferred from Oxbow Carbon & Minerals, Inc. to Oxbow Mining, Inc. on
<br />January 23, 1998 with Succession of Operator No. 4.
<br />Oxbow Carbon Minerals submitted an application for permit renewal on March 13, 1998. The
<br />submittal was called complete by the Division on March 23, 1998, thereby securing the right of
<br />successive renewal for the Sanborn Creek Mine. The Division's adequacy review letter was
<br />dated July 30, 1999. Because the operator chose to rewrite and reorganize the entire Sanbom
<br />Creek Mine permit application, it was decided to separate the permit application reorganization
<br />effort from the permit renewal process. Since the permit renewal adequacy questions were more
<br />pertinent to the reorganization, rather than to the permit renewal itself, the OMI responses to the
<br />permit renewal adequacy review questions were submitted in a new Permit Revision No. 4. The
<br />permit renewal was approved on September 25, 2000.
<br />Permit Revision No. 4 was submitted September 5, 2000, and called complete September 15,
<br />2000. DMG issued the decision on January 9, 2002. Because of computer problems with the
<br />Department of the Interior, the fmal AVS check was accomplished on January 16, 2002.
<br />During the review of PR-04, the Division conducted a complete bond inspection of the mine and
<br />recalculated the reclamation bond liability at $3, 117, 145.00. Corporate surety
<br />received by the Division on November 1, 2001, covers that liability.
<br />On September 19, 2001, Oxbow Mining, Inc., initiated the process of transferring the coal permit
<br />from that entity to Oxbow Elk Creek, LLC, and then to Oxbow Mining, LLC. This transfer of
<br />permit (SO-OS) received approval on October 22, 2001. No comments were received, and the
<br />transfer became effective November 20, 2001.
<br />Oxbow Mining LLC submitted an application for Permit Revision number 5, received by the
<br />Division on February 15, 2003, to revise the Elk Creek Mine longwall plan and add a 160-acre
<br />lease modification to accommodate a reorientation of the longwall panels. The area of the lease
<br />modification was already within the permit area. The application was initially found incomplete
<br />because the package did not con rmation on the possible affects of subsidence on
<br />groundwater and surface water hydrology. Additional information was submitted and the
<br />application was called complete on August 1, 2002. Upon the submission of a revised D-seam
<br />subsidence report for the amended longwall orientation, the revision was approved on January
<br />20, 2003. The federal mine plan approval was signed June 23, 2003 for mining in the D-seam.
<br />On January 14, 2003, the Division notified Oxbow Carbon and Minerals of the impending permit
<br />renewal and the need to file a complete application by April 14, 2003. The operator submitted an
<br />application for permit renewal on February 21, 2003. The submittal was called complete by the
<br />Division on Mazch 3, 2003, thereby securing the right of successive renewal for the Sanbom
<br />Creek Mine. Completeness letters were mailed out to various federal, state and local agencies on
<br />March 3, 2003. The public notice announcing the completeness of the permit renewal
<br />application was published on four consecutive weeks beginning March 19, 2003, and finishing
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