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' 3.3.2 D Seem The D Seam has been a target of interest in the Rangely coal field area since the <br />• late nineteenth century and was mined at the now abandoned Staley-Gordon Mine until about <br />' 1970. Thickness of the D Seam varies from 0 (areas of non-deposition) in the western portion of <br />the Deserado Mine area to about 9 feet in the central and eastern most portions of the area. Coal <br />production at the Deserado Mine has to date been limited to the D Seam. Where presently being <br />mined, the D Seam is of consistent quality and thickness. Exploration has delineated a major <br />parting in the D Seam. This parting is splay like in nature and appears to enter the Deserado Mine <br />1 LMU from the Northeast. The parting occurs at the middle of the D Seam and splits the D Seam <br />into two or more seams neither of which are of mineable thickness. The parting is located along the <br />eastern side of lease C-44693 (see cross sections G-G; Plate 6), across the northern third of new <br />' lease COC-51551, and bisecting lease C-023703 just west of the D Seam portal. This parting <br />varies from inches thick at the feather edge to over twenty feet thick and effectively prevents mining <br />in the D Seam to the east and north of the Deserado Mine LMU. Exploration in and adjacent to new <br />lease COC-51551 shows that the overlying E Seam converges with the D Seam in lease COC- <br />51551 and is collectively referred to as the D Seam. Plate 12 is the Isopach Map of D Seam <br />' showing the location of the middle D Seam parting and the D to E convergence line. North of the <br />D to E convergence line and south of the middle D Seam parting, the D Seam is 11 to 12 feet thick. <br />North of the middle D Seam parting the upper split of D Seam and the E Seam (also collectively <br />t referred to as D Seam) present a mineable thickness of 6 to 7 feet in the northern portion of new <br />lease COC-51551. The Deserado Mine fire (1/31/96) and subsequent sealing of the East Mains <br />to isolate the fire has rendered most of the remaining reserves of thick D Seam coal in coal lease <br />M COC-51551 unmineable. <br />3.3.3 The E Seam Exploration drilling in 1989 and 1991 verified the convergence of E Seam and <br />D Seam in lease COC-51551. E Seam is actuary an upper split of D Seam, but continues to be <br />' referred to as the E Seam where not converged with the D Seam. Interburden between the E Seam <br />and underlying D Seam thickens to the south and west from 0 at the convergence line to over 40 <br />feet thick along the southern part of the Deserado Mine LMU. The economic significance of the E <br />Seam is severely limited by its extreme variability of thickness and extent. The E Seam exceeds <br />3.5 feet of thickness in an area of about 200 acres centered in the NWi/4 Section 2, T2N R101 W, <br />' achieving a maximum of about 6 feet. <br />' 3.3.4 F and G Seams The F and G Seams occur in an extremely variable stratigraphic interval <br />positioned from 510 30 feet above the E Seam. Both seams approach 5 feet in thickness in isolated <br />' areas. However, neither are of minable thickness over sufficient area to be of any economic <br />interest. Correlation of these seams is difficult due to the sporadic occurrence of numerous thin coal <br />lenses in the interval containing F and G. <br />'• 12 <br /> <br />