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If you concur with this recommendation, please sign the attached memorandum to the <br />• Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management. <br />II. Background <br />The Bowie No. 2 underground coal mine is located in Delta County, Colorado. The mine <br />has been in operation since 1997. The life of the currently approved mining operations <br />within the approved permit area is estimated to be 9 months. The mining operations use <br />industry standard longwall mining methods. The average annual production rate is at the <br />approved maximum production rate of 5.0 million tons per yeaz from the D-2 coal seam. <br />Prior to this new mining plan, two right-of--way azeas were incorporated into the approved <br />State permit area, to allow for the development of underground ventilation facilities and <br />access tunnels through Federal coal prior to the issuance of Federal lease COC 61209. <br />These azeas did not require Secretarial approval since the right-of--way areas were granted <br />through unleased Federal coal. Specifically these areas are located in the SE'/,S W'/,, <br />Section 2, N'/:SE'/,, N%zSW'/., Section 3, N%zSE%, Section 4, NE'/<NW'/., Section 11 <br />T.13S., R.91 W 6'" P.M., and aze included within the proposed mining plan azea depicted <br />on the mining plan area map of this mining plan decision document and Attachment I of <br />the mining plan approval document. <br />The State's current permit area covers 2,551 acres. <br />• Approximately 88 surface acres are disturbed within the State's permit azea. <br />A total of 645 acres of Federal coal exist within the State's current permit area. <br />A total of 0.4 million tons of Federal coal exist within the two Federal right-of--way <br />azeas. <br />A total of 348 acres of Federal surface land exist within the State's current permit azea. <br />The postmining land use within the currently approved mining plan area is rangeland and <br />wildlife habitat. <br />1[I. The Proposed Action <br />This mining plan action consists of a new mining plan for Federal lease COC-61209. <br />Specifically, the mining plan action proposed by BRL consists of: <br />an incidental boundary change that will allow mining and coal recovery from the <br />D-2 coal seam, in the Iron Point Tract Federal coal lease COC-61209, for the first <br />time in the SW'/,N W'/,, NW'/,SW'/,, E'/zSW'/,, Section 2; S%N'/z, N'/:S%:, Section <br />3; S''/zN%2, S%z, Section 4; NE'/.NW'/,'/,, Section 11 T.13S., R.91 W 6'~ P.M. <br />