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i <br />~' <br />d <br />7 <br />j <br />', <br /> <br />7 <br /> <br />a <br />3 <br />~® <br />j <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />United States Department of the Interior <br />OFFICE OF SURFACE MINIIv'G <br />Reclamation and Enforcement <br />BROOKS TOWERS <br />' I020ISiHSTREET <br />DENVER, COLORADO 80202 <br />MEMORANDUM <br />T0: James R. Harris, Director, OSM <br />FROM: Richard E. Dawes, Acting Administrator, Weste Technical Center <br />SUBJECT: Recommendation of Approval of the King :fining and Reclamation Permit <br />National King Coal Inc., La Plata County, Colorado <br />(Federal Lease Nos. C-29125 and P-058300) <br />I. Recommendation: <br />Hased on the Technical Assessment (TA) prepared by the State of Colorado, <br />Mined Land Reclamation Division (MEAD), the State's approval of the mine, and <br />the Environmental Assessment (EA) prepared by the Bureau of Land ~danagement <br />(BEM), I am recommending approval with stipulations of National King Coal <br />Inc.'s mining and reclamation permit for the King Mine. <br />The company has proposed to continue underground coal mining operations within <br />Federal coal lease Nos. P-058300 and to mine new lease C-29125 acquired Octo- <br />ber 29, 1981, for a permit rem of five years. <br />OSM and the State, in the course of their review, have identified some ele- <br />ments of the applicant's permit proposal which, in order to be in compliance <br />with the approved State Program, require conditions of approval. These condi- <br />tions are attached to the proposed permit (1fC0-0043) and are included as part <br />of the preferred alternative. <br />II. Background: <br />The underground mine is located in La Plata County, Colorado, about 7 <br />miles southwest of Hesperus (see location maps). The King Mine began mining <br />Federal coal in lease P-058300 in 194t. National King Coal obtained from BL`1 <br />(October, 1981) a short-term lease (C-29125) to allow the mine to continue op- <br />eration. OS11 granted National King Coal limited access to this lease on <br />March 11, 1982 for 4 months due to administrative delay while the permanent <br />program mine plan approval was being processed. The recommended approval <br />would allow National King coal to mine their 1.67 million tons of coal re- <br />serves at 120,000 tons per year for eight years. <br />A site visit was made January 13, 1982 by OSM's Technical Project Officer, <br />prior to reviewing the Colorado MLRD draft findings documents. Comments were <br />given to Colorado MLRD on February L1, 1982 and incorporated into their final <br />findings of compliance and technical analysis. <br />c <br />