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Summary The Review Process The proposed Hamilton Mine is located in Montrose County approximately two miles southeast of the town of Naturita (Figure 1). The permit area is a 677 acre tract of land. Approximately 260 acres will be disturbed. On February 5, 1991 the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division received a permit application from Liilytands, Inc. for the Hamilton Mine. It was agreed at that time that more extensive vegetation baseline information would be needed and, therefore, L111ylands waived Its right to the 120 day decision deadline contained in Rule Z.07.4(2)(b). The application was deemed complete for the purposes of filing on February 15, 1991. Three comment letters were received by the Division during the Preliminary Adequacy Review period. Comment letters were received from the Colorado Historical Society (CHS), the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Reams Construction Company. The CHS noted that a file survey had been done but requested that a complete archaeological survey of the entire permit area be conducted. A professional archaeologist was Contracted by the operator to conduct this survey. In a letter dated June 27, 1991 and received at MLRD offices on July 5, 1991, the CHS acknowledged that the survey report was acceptable. Because of the acceptability of the report and the commitments by the operator to protect two prehistoric sites found to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, the Division finds that the concerns of the CHS have been adequately addressed. The U.S. BLM noted that coal in the E1/2 NE1/4 of Section 32, Township 46 North, Range 15 West, NMPM and E1/2, NE1/4 of Section 5, Township 45 North, Range 15 West, NMPM is federally owned whereas the surface estate is prlvatety owned. The operator will locate some structures on these parcels of land but the application contains no plans to mine this coal. Therefore, the Division finds that the concerns of BLM have been adequately addressed. The Reams Construction Company letter was a letter in favor of MLRD granting the mining and reclamation permit. Such support is duly noted. The Preliminary Adequacy Review (PAR> letter was faxed to the operator on April 19, 1991. A final copy was mailed on April 26, 1991. A file review conducted on June 1, 1991 indicated that the Division had not sent all the required completeness notifications. These notifications were sent on June 6, 1991 and all parties have returned answers indicating that they do not wish to comment on the application. The operator responded to the Division's concerns on June 7, June 24, July 2 and July 3, 1991. The Division reviewed the adequacy responses and sent an adequacy review questions status letter on July 11, 1991. The Division also completed a review of the proposed reclamation bonding costs subsequent to receiving the adequacy review answers. 'The bond review summary was faxed to the operator on July 16, 1991 with the summary and supporting calculations mailed on the same day. Further discussions with the operator enabled the Division to clarify certain assumptions made in the first bonding estimate. A revised estimate was sent to the operator on July 23, 1991. The operator addressed these concerns by a -2-