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Page 2 <br />The Coal Nine Operating Regulations, 30 C?it 211, require the upper coal <br />• beds to be mined first unless circumstances permit otherwise or as <br />directed by the Area ?riming Supervisor. To mine the lower "B" or "C" <br />coal beds °irst may jeopardice the maximum recovery of the coal resource. <br />p11 coal mined ~•i.ll be b~• underground mining methods. The short term <br />leasing criteria has limited the projected method o_' mining. An exaxple <br />of this would be the restricted length of panel entries making longwall <br />mining impractical. The limited acreage allowed in the short term <br />leasing criteria does not provide a mining area large enough for long- <br />wall mining operations. <br />The following conditions exist in this mine to .rake longwall mining <br />imoractical: <br />1. Thick coal -- Lon~aall mining is most adaptable to thinner seams. <br />2. Existence of faults -- Longwali units are impractical where <br />faults exist. <br />3. Small acreage in lease is not practical for designing a long- <br />wall mining systex. <br />The room and niliar method of Wining currently helm^_ used by Colorado <br />Westmoreland at their Orchard t`alle}- mine is p-obably the xost cractical <br />mining method to use at t;,is tine. <br />An additional cornent should be Wade concerning the mining of only the <br />upper portion (12 feet maximum) of the thicker coal sear. It is estinsted <br />that 4Cr75% of the coal nay be recovered `ram the upper 12 feet of the coal <br />Sean, ::h=teas if zn aLtetrt was made to tine the foil thickness of a 24- <br />foot coal bed, only 20-40; of the coal could be recovered. :ne lower <br />portion of the coal seam will be left in solid blanket fog for recovery <br />at a later date. <br />It is believed :hat the ma}:imum recover}• of the cca'_ sea= can be obtained <br />by mining only the upper 12 feet of a thick coal seam and leaving the <br />bottom portion of the sears in solid blanb:et fors suitable for future <br />recovery. <br />Some of the reasons for mining only the upper part of the coal seam would <br />be as follows: <br />1. Setter sa_`ety control <br />2. Better control of ventilation <br />3. Better haulage control <br />4. Better roof control <br />.~ y <br />