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In April 1989, an application for a technical revision for an incidental boundary change to add <br />35.5 acres to the permit area was submitted. The revision was for access and associated activities <br />by way of slopes and a ventilation shaft from inside the existing F Seam workings to the B Seam. <br />The revision also included mining in the B Seam by room and pillaz, as well as longwall mining <br />methods. The 35.5-acre incidental boundary change was necessary to accommodate the B Seam <br />main access entries. The Division subsequently issued a proposed decision to approve the <br />revision on July 12, 1989. <br />Elevated levels of indicator gases showed there was probable combustion in gob in a mined-out <br />area of the B-West mains in January 2000. Operations were curtailed and MCC immediately <br />began an operation to access the B-seam by drilling into the mine from the Apache Rocks area <br />above. Approval was obtained from both CDRMS and the US Forest Service to initiate a drilling <br />program in that area. Nineteen 4-inch drillholes were emplaced, the location of the combustion <br />identified, and water subsequently pumped into the azea from the drillholes in the Apache Rocks <br />azea. In the spring of 2001, MSHA gave MCC permission to curtail the pumping of water, so the <br />company completely sealed off the azea underground and initiated the approved reclamation of <br />the disturbed ground on the surface. <br />A second episode of elevated levels of gas occurred in the mine in late 2005, necessitating the <br />drilling of several boreholes from the surface to the B Seam workings in the Box Canyon azea. <br />Approval was obtained for the construction of roads and drilling the boreholes. Water and foam <br />were pumped down in to the workings and mining resumed within approximately three months. <br />No major buildings, major structures, occupied dwellings, cemeteries, parks, railroads or <br />highways overlie the coal to be mined. Two reservoirs lie close to the F Seam outcrop; however, <br />neither is directly over the coal to be mined. <br />Ventilation in the mine is provided by a fan in Sylvester Gulch. Power to the mine is supplied <br />via existing lines of the Delta-Montrose Electric Association. At a substation located in the main <br />mine facilities area, power is stepped down to serve the underground mine and to serve the <br />surface facilities. With Permit Revision No. 7, MCC constructed an air intake shaft and an <br />exhaust shaft within Sylvester Gulch. <br />Mountain Coal Company submitted a Technical Revision 93 to seal the bulkheads at the Lone <br />Pine fan portal. Mining ceased in the Lone Pine portion of the mine in early 2001 and the <br />workings served by the fan portal were sealed off underground. The longwall was moved in <br />2001 to the eastern mining district east of Sylvester Gulch and mining has since progressed <br />northward in the permit azea. <br />MCC occasionally uses a relatively small quantity of explosives for blasting for underground <br />construction. The explosives aze stored in an explosives magazine located in the main facilities <br />area of the mine. <br />The West Elk Mine portals are located at an approximate elevation of 6,450 feet. Run-of--mine <br />coal is transported from the production panels to the various surface facilities by a system of belt <br />conveyors. A conveyor carries coal from inside the mine portal to the stacking tubes. From the <br />stacking tubes, an underground conveyor reclaim system transports the coal to the two crushers. <br />35 <br />