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Section I -History of Site
<br />The Sanbom Creek Mine, operated by Oxbow Mining, Inc., is located in Delta and
<br />Gunnison Counties, and is adjacent to the town of Somerset on State Highway 133.
<br />The original permit under the Colorado Permanent Regulatory Program was issued to
<br />U.S. Steel Mining Company, Inc. on October I I, 1983. Kaiser Coal Corporation acted as
<br />operator on the property from 1986 to 1990. In 1990, their permit was transferred to
<br />Somerset Mining Company and Somerset completed the permit renewal for another
<br />five-year permit term. That permit period initiated October 11, 1988 and expired October
<br />11, 1993.
<br />Upon finalization of the purchase of the mine and transfer and renewal of the permit,
<br />Somerset Mining Company proposed opening a new set of mine portals, named the
<br />Sanborn Creek Mine, to access, first, the C seam and, then, ramp down to the B seam.
<br />Most of the production would come from the B seam. This proposal was presented in
<br />the form of Permit Revision No. One (PR-O1) submitted to the Division on June 4, 1990
<br />and approved on March 27, 1991. The permit area was increased by 962 acres to a total
<br />of 3737 acres, 1608 acres of which were private land and 2129 acres of which were
<br />federal land. Of the 962 acre increase in the permit area, 796 were private and 169 were
<br />federal.
<br />Permit Revision No. Two (PR-02) was submitted to the Division on April 13, 1992. The
<br />operator proposed to add the Sanborn East Federal Coal Tract to the Sanbom Creek Mine
<br />plan. The Division approved the permit revision, with a stipulation, on September 25,
<br />1992. The stipulation, Stipulation No. 12, required the mine plan approval, from the
<br />Office of Surface Mining (OSM), to be in place for coal lease COC-53510 before the
<br />permit revision could receive final approval. OSM approval was received by the
<br />Division on March 19, 1993, and final approval of Permit Revision No. 2 was thereby
<br />issued. This revision increased the permit area by 1792 acres, 70 acres being private land
<br />and 1722 acres being federal land. The total acreage of the permit area was now 5529
<br />acres, 1678 acres of private land and 3851 acres of federal land.
<br />On April 12, 1993, Somerset Mining Company's application for renewal of a valid,
<br />existing permit to conduct coal mining operations, Permit No. C-81-022, was deemed
<br />complete. The permit renewal process was completed on October 22, 1993. The new
<br />permit term started on October 11, 1993 and ended on October 11. 1998.
<br />The permit was transferred from Somerset Mining Company to Pacific Basin Resources
<br />on August 31, 1995 through Succession of Operator No. 2. At that time, the name of the
<br />mine was changed from the Somerset/Sanborn Creek Mine to the Sanborn Creek Mine.
<br />Permit Revision No. 3 was submitted to the Division on May 13, 1996. The operator
<br />requested, through this revision, to increase the permit area by 3,518 acres, to a total of
<br />9,047 acres. Of the total permit acreage, 3,53 acres were private and x,494 acres were
<br />federal. Of the total increase in acreage, 1,875 were on private land and 1,643 acres were
<br />Sanborn Creek and Elk Creek tilines Midterm Review
<br />Permit No. C-81-022 3 April 24, 2001
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