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Summary <br />History of the Review Process <br /> <br />Empire Energy Corporation is applying for a permit revision under the Colorado <br />Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act to mine coal at the Eagle Mines No. 5, SA <br />and 6 Mines. The mines are located in Moffat County, approximately 7 miles <br />southwest of Craig, Colorado off State Highway 13/789. A separate load-out <br />facility is maintained in the town of Craig. <br />Coal mining has occurred in the Empire mine site vicinity since 1936. The <br />present operations began during the early 1970's, when underground mining <br />began at the Eagle No. 5 mine. Open mining permit #41 was issued in late 1974 <br />to allow surface mining in the Williams Fork strip pit. This permit expired <br />in June, 1979. In March of 1977, Eagle No, 9 was granted permit #76-7 U.G. <br />under C.R.S. 1973, 34-32-101 et seq, as amended. Permit, #79-170, for both <br />the Eagle No. 5 and No. 9 mines was issued in March, 1980. <br />Empire Energy Corporation submitted the original permit application for <br />compliance with Colorado's Permanent Regulatory Program in three major parts. <br />The first part was submitted on February 17, 1981 and covered the existing <br />operations for the Eagle No, 5 and No. 9 mines. <br />The second part of the permit application was submitted as an addendum on <br />August 14, 1981, The addendum was for a newly issued federal lease referred <br />to as the Empire Tract. This lease allowed for the eastward expansion of the <br />Eagle No. 5 mine and Empire Energy Corporation requested a 681 acre increase <br />to the permit boundary. No new surface facilities were proposed. <br />The third part of the permit application, submitted April 14, 1982, <br />constituted a proposal to increase the permit boundary by 1552 acres and an <br />amended mine plan for the Eagle No. 9 mine. No new surface facilities were <br />proposed. The final proposed acreage for the permit area at that time was <br />5,397 acres. <br />In December of 1982, Empire Energy Corporation submitted a revised permit <br />application which consolidated alt the information from the various <br />submittals, responses to adequacy letters, and revisions to the application <br />into one permit application document. <br />The Mined Land Reclamation Division identified several critical concerns that <br />needed to be addressed before the permit application could be recommended for <br />approval. Empire Energy adequately resolved all issues concerning the No. 5 <br />Mine through additional information received on June 8, 1983. Approval to <br />mine in the No. 5 Mine was granted September 2, 1983. This approval did not <br />allow additional mining in the No. 9 Mine. Empire Energy adequately resolved <br />the remaining issues concerning the No. 9 Mine subsequent to the September 2, <br />1983 approval. Approval was granted for additional mining in the No. 9 Mine <br />on April 9, 1984. <br />-5- <br />