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determined all adequacy concerns were satisfied <br />Adjil~.tiistoly and th _ nwronm -nt <br />The Golden Eagle Mine is located in Las Animas County, Colorado approximately 23 <br />miles west of Trinidad along State Highway 12 The Golden Eagle mine began <br />operations under the name of the Maxwell Mine, originally permitted and operated by <br />Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (CF&I). In January of 1984. Wyoming Fuels, a KN <br />Energy subsidiary, purchased the mine. In March of 1993. the permittee and operator <br />changed to Basin Resources. Inc.. awholly-owned subsidiary of Entech, Inc., and a <br />subsidiary of Montana Power Company. Due to difficult mining conditions and <br />economic factors, the mine officially shut down operations on December 31, 1995. <br />During 1996, all facilities were removed, backfilling and grading was completed, and the <br />disturbed areas were topsoiled, seeded and mulched. In July 2001, the parent <br />company ownership of BRI changed from Entech (Montana Power} to Colorado <br />Westmoreland, Inc Mine-related activities presently are focused on reclamation, bond <br />release, monitoring, and maintenance. <br />~` ... <br />a. 1 <br />r <br />/F ~ <br />~1~~ <br />C ~~ - <br />{ -:y'. , <br />t <br />r <br />! L _._ <br />The majority of the mine facilities were located immediately south of the highway and <br />the Purgatoire River, near the mouth of Ctruela Canyon. Two ventilation shafts. mine <br />buildings, water tanks, portal, coal stockpiles, conveyors, and a coal truck loadout were <br />located in this area. Amine development waste pile was also constructed at the mouth <br />of Ciruela Canyon, immediately south of the railroad right-of-way that crosses the <br />permit area. Two other ventilation shafts were located at remote areas away from the <br />main facility. <br />During active mining operations, the mine used both continuous miners and a 600-foot <br />wide longwall mining machine to extract coal from the Maxwell seam. No longwall <br />mining occurred under Highway 12 or under the adjacent Purgatoire River alluvial valley <br />floor. However, development mining did occur in this area to allow access to reserves <br />to the north of the highway- Two complete longwall panels and a portion of a third <br />