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Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans <br />The Bowie No. 1 Mine is an existing underground mine which has been in operation since 1975. There are <br />three major disturbed areas within the permit boundary. The original portals east of Steven's Gulch were <br />the site of the main offices, crushing and screening facilities, and storage and warehouse areas. Before <br />reclamation activities began in 2000, the Bowie No. 1 West Mine portals on East Roatcap Creek used to be <br />adjoined by a small maintenance facility, ventilation shaft and water tank. The coal loadout facilities are <br />located adjacent to the North Fork of the Gunnison River along State Highway 133. <br />The Bowie No. l West Mine portal facilities in East Roatcap Creek enabled Bowie Resources Limited to <br />access the reserves that had been cut off due to the fire at the main portals. Mining occurred west of the <br />main East Mine during the 1988 to 1993 five-year mine plan. The East Mine portals were rehabilitated <br />during late 1992 and early 1993. The two mines were connected underground in June 1993 and a beltline <br />was used to transport the majority of coal out of the east portals to the crushing and screening facility <br />located at the east mine. This precluded the trucking of coal from the west mine portals, which had <br />occurred when the West Mine became operational. The approved plan to construct rock slope tunnels to <br />connect the east and west mines became obsolete with the rehabilitation of the east mine portals. <br />The general direction of mining had been northward to extract coal from the D seam. When mining was <br />active, the coal had moved from the mining face via a continuous haulage system shuttle cars to a <br />feeder-breaker and then out of the east mine via conveyor belt to a surge bin, ascreening/crushing facility <br />and a truck loading facility. Although mining at the Bowie No. l Mine has ceased, BRL periodically <br />trucks coal from the Bowie No. 2 Mine to the Bowie No. 1 Mine storage silos and railroad loadout facility <br />where it is loaded onto trains for shipment to mazket. <br />Because mining has ceased, there is no predicted production rate for this five-year permit term. The mine <br />utilized the room and pillar mining method of extracting coal. <br />The approved reclamation plan requires that, after the conclusion of mining, the portals will be backfilled, <br />all surface facilities will be removed, the mine benches will be recontoured, the loadout will be regraded to <br />approximate original contour, and all areas will be revegetated in accordance with the approved <br />post-mining land use and revegetation plan. However, there is a possibility that the train loadout will <br />continue to operate for many years, as a loading facility for coal from other mines, after the rest of the mine <br />site has been reclaimed. Reclamation operations are in progress at both the East Mine and the West Mine. <br />17 <br />