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As mining has progressed south, SCC has gained additional experience in dealing with the ever- <br />increasing steepness of the topography. This affect was not considered in the original timing and <br />sequencing. The addition of the Sage Creek/Wolf Creek mining areas has further altered the <br />sequencing and timing of coal removal and reclamation. The Wolf Creek mining block will begin by <br />opening a box cut with scraper and dozers in the lower strip ratio area (see Exhibit 72-3, Operations <br />Plant. The box cut will be irregularly shaped and be a minimum of 300 feet wide. The overburden <br />material will be hauled and placed in the adjacent mined out area of the Wadge pit. It is expected to <br />take approximately 3 months to remove the overburden and coal from the box cut. <br />While the box cut is being mined, the dragline will be uncovering coal in the adjacent Wadge mining <br />area. Once the Wolf Creek box cut is completed and the dragline has completed the Wadge pit it is <br />working on, the dragline will proceed to the north side of the Wolf Creek Box cut and open a pit parallel <br />to the dip of the coal beginning at the bottom of the slope and working uphill toward outcrop (see <br />Exhibit 12-3, Operations Plant. It is expected to take a minimum of 15 days to remove the overburden <br />and another 15 days to recover the coal from the first dragline pit. Once the dragline has uncovered <br />the coal, rather than sit idle for 15 days waiting for coal removal, it will move back to the Wadge area <br />and mine another pit. <br />The reason for having to open an entire pit length before coal removal can begin is due to the extreme <br />grade within the pit. Haul trucks cannot negotiate up the steep pit grade, therefore they must enter the <br />pit from the upper end (via Haulroad L) and exit from the lower end. In addition, due to the short pit <br />lengths, the ever increasing overburden depth and having io access the pit from the highwall side of <br />the pit, there is not adequate room to construct a haul ramp in the middle of the pit to facilitate more <br />timely removal of the coal. <br />Once the dragline has uncovered a pit of Wadge coal, it will move either back to the Wolf Creek area or <br />to the southern Sage Creek area to open another pit. As mining progresses and the dragline has to <br />move greater distances between the three mining areas, the timing to complete backfilling and rough <br />grading within portions of individual pits also increases and could exceed the regulatory 180-day limit. <br />With these operational constraints in mind SCC has requested a variance to Rule 4.14.11111c) in Tab <br />19, Backfilling and Grading. <br />As the dragline proceeds northward in the Wolf Creek area it will require proportionately more time to <br />complete each pit and to remove the coal. Just prior to the dragline reaching the edge of the northern <br />Sage Creek area, scrapers will open a pit of the Sage Creek coal seam and place the overburden over <br />the rough graded Wolf Creek spoils to the south. Once the Sage Creek seam is removed from the pit, <br />the dragline will proceed to mine the deeper Wolf Creek seam. This sequence will continue until the <br />northern limit of the mining block is reached, whereby final reclamation activities will commence. <br />PR03 8a Revised 04/02 <br />