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• (3) documentation assuring compliance with applicable <br />requirements of other Federal laws, regulations, and <br />executive orders, <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 />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. The life of the currently approved mining operations <br />within the approved permit area is estimated to be 7 years. <br />The mining operations use room-and-pillar mining methods. <br />The average annual production rate is 0.2 million tons per <br />• year from the Menefee Coal Bed No. 1 coal seam, but the <br />maximum production rate could reach the approved 0.3 million <br />tons per year. <br />The mining plan for Federal leases C-29125 and P-058300 at <br />the King Coal Mine was initially approved on June 30, 1982. <br />Since that approval subsequent mining plan modifications <br />were approved on July 22, 1992 and October 22, 1997. In <br />addition, National King Coal, LLC is mining coal on Indian <br />lands under Federal Permit No. CO-0101 issued on August 30, <br />1995. <br />The State's permit area covers 1577 acres. About 11 surface <br />acres are disturbed within the State's permit area. The <br />State reviewed the permit area acreage at the time of its <br />decision for Permit Revision No. 6 and determined that the <br />permit acreage before the approval of Permit Revision No. 6 <br />was 1577 acres. This unexplained discrepancy is a decrease <br />from the 1584 acres reported at the time of Permit Revision <br />No. 5 which was the basis for the last mining plan <br />modification approved on October 22, 1997. <br />A total of 853 acres of Federal coal exist in the currently <br />approved mining plan area. A review of the mining plan area <br />acreage by OSM revealed that at the time of the initial <br />mining plan approval in 1982, about ten (10) acres were <br />• added to the amount of then existing leased Federal coal <br />acreage (340 acres). Since mining plan areas can only <br />