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EXPLORATION PLAN FOR EXPLORATION LICENSE ' 1.0 INTRODUCTION Presentation of this exploration plan is to request permission from ' appropriate Department of the Interior (DOI) agencies to perform exploratory drilling and logging on certain unleased federal coal lands in Rio Blanco County, Colorado. ' This exploration program will evaluate the quantity and quality of coal in areas adjacent to the Deserado Mine leases. If present, coal from ' the area could supplement existing reserves of fuel for the Deseret Generation and Transmission Cooperative's coal-fired thermal electric generating station near Bonanza, Utah. ' Western Fuels would like to begin this exploration in the Spring of ' 1 1985, as weather permits. ' This plan has been prepared in accordance with federal regulation 43CFR Part 3400 and includes a brief description of geology, the existing environment, the proposed drilling program, rehabilitation of disturbed ' land and an exploration schedule. 1.1 Property Location and Legal Description The Deserado Mine is located in Rio Blanco County, Colorado, approximately fourteen miles northeast of Rangely, Colorado. Access to the area from Rangely is via Colorado Highway 64 and Rio Blanco County Road 65, the Deserado Mine Road. The mining unit presently includes five Federal Coal Leases (C-023703, D-047201,C-8424, C-8425 and ' C-0126669) containing 6,441.54 acres. Exploration was conducted by ~•lestern Fuels on certain adjacent lands ' under Exploration License C-28176, which is now expired. An "expression of interest" was filed by Western Fuels with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the area included in License Area C-28176 ' plus certain other unleased federal coal lands. These lands, including the area described in this exploration license application, are part of the Prairie Dog Tract as delineated in the BLFI Prairie Dog Tract Profile (August, 1982), and are scheduled to be leased in the future. Location of the lease areas, the expired exploration license area (C-28176) and the current exploration license application area are shown in Figure 1-1. A legal description of the exploration license application area is presented as Table 1-1. The area requested contains approximately 2,116 acres.