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4.0 MINING OPERATION <br />Underground mining operations at the Deserado Mine will be conducted in the B and D coal seams. <br />Although eight (8) seams have been identified from the results of BME's exploration drilling, only the <br />B and D Seams attain sufficient thickness over an adequate areal extent to be considered <br />economically recoverable. <br />4.1 Coal Quality <br />4.1.1 Rangy end Average Ouallty Deserado Mine area coal quality analyses consist of basically <br />two types; along proximate analysis (moisture, ash, volatile matter, fixed carbon, calorific value and <br />sulfur content} and a full analysis which generally consisted of the long proximate analysis plus <br />ukimate analysis, mineral analysis of ash, ash fusion, equilibrium moisture, Hardgrove grindabiliry, <br />free swelling index, sulfur forms, Vace elements, water soluble alkalies and apparent specific gravity. <br />In summary, long proximate analyses were performed on samples from 26 cores from the B Seam <br />and 20 cores from the D Seam. Full analyses were conducted on 25 cores from the B Seam and <br />19 cores of the D Seam. Coal quality has therefore been determined from the analysis of 51 cores <br />of the B Seam and 39 cores of the D Seam. Multiple quality analyses of a core from individual <br />seams were performed on a majority of the cores. The results of those analysis were weight <br />averaged to determine coal seam quality at each specific core hole location. <br />The rank of Deserado Mine coal is on the border of subbituminous A and high volatile C bituminous <br />(ASTM Standard D-388-T7}. However, using the 'Parr Formula" for calculating the moist, mineral <br />matter free, calorific value indicates that the D Seam coal and the average of the D Seam and B <br />Seam analyses indicates a rank of high volatile C bituminous. Sulfur content in the lease area is <br />low, averaging 0.41% and ash content is moderate to high, averaging 14.12%. <br />Table 4-1 summarizes the range and average coal quality as determined by analyses of core <br />samples from the Deserado Mine area. Table 4-2 is a summary of the mineral analyses of the ash <br />and also the chlorine content. Water soluble sodium analyses range from 0.016 wt 9a to 0.160 wt <br />% and average 0.091 wt % for the B Seam. In the D Seam, water soluble sodium ranges from <br />0.043 wt % to 0.120 wt % and average 0.091 wt %. <br />14 <br />