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Mountain Coal Company Exhibit 69 <br />West Elk Mine Sylvester Gulch Facilities <br />The contractor will then install a concrete lining from the bedrock up to the surface and <br />construct the collar pad mentioned previously. Following this the contractor will install <br />equipment in the intake shaft necessary to begin excavation of the rock/coal material from <br />bedrock down through the B Seam coal bed (approximately 650 feet). Excavation will <br />require drilling, blasting and removal of the broken material using hoisting equipment. <br />The broken material will be transported from the intake shaft to the far west bench and <br />temporarily stockpiled. MCC will remove this stockpiled material periodically and <br />transport the waste rock to the refuse pile and coal to the Run-of--Mine stacktube piles at <br />the present West Elk Mine surface facilities for processing. The contractor will install a <br />15" thick concrete lining concurrent with excavation of the intake shaft. <br />Excavation and handling of the soil, waste rock and coal from the exhaust shaft <br />construction will proceed in a similar manner, and the exhaust shaft will be lined with a <br />12" thick concrete lining concurrent with excavation. A water handling system will be <br />constructed between the concrete liner and the rock. During construction, groundwater <br />seepage will be directed downward to the shafr bottom until it reaches the active working <br />face. Water encountered by the contractor during construction of the shafts will be <br />pumped out of the excavation at a rate not to exceed 25 gallons per minute and will be <br />directed to the sediment control ditch along the south side of the benches and then to the <br />SG-1. MCC contracted with Hydro-Geo Consultants, Inc. to perform hydrologic testing <br />on exploration hole EER during August of 1996. This exploration hole is located <br />approximately 50 feet south of the proposed exhaust shaft location. A total of 11 packer <br />permeability tests were conducted by Hydro-Geo covering the entire length of the hole <br />from the surface to a point just below the bottom of the B-Seam. Permeability tests were <br />performed using the constant head injection method. <br />The conclusions of the Hydro-geo study are: <br />1. During construction of the shafs, from the surface to approximately <br />400 feet in depth the maximum total inflows from the strata <br />encountered will be approximately 6 gpm to 8 gpm. <br />2. During construction of the shafts, as the shafts are deepened from <br />400 feet to the final approximate 700 foot depth, the maximum total <br />inflows will increase from approximately 8 gpm to 25 gpm. <br />3. Long-term steady state inflows to the shafs (and ultimately fo the <br />shaft water collection system) are not expected to exceed 20 gpm. <br />Once construction of the shafts is completed, the water handling system behind the <br />concrete liner will collect and convey seepage behind the liner down to the B-Seam where <br />it will be directed to a mine sump. This water will then be handled by the mine <br />dewatering system. Upon completion of construction of both shafts the contractor will <br />construct the concrete foundations and steel structures for the elevator, emergency hoist, <br />12 Nav. /995 PROIR,~ Revived May 7997 MR216 <br />Revised Jul. 7997 MR219; Revised June 2003 MR297 <br />