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Member. The correlation of this seam with known coal seams in the North <br />• Fork Area is difficult because of the stratigraphic differences between <br />the two areas. This coal seam may represent a lower split of the Oliver <br />Bed, such as occurs in the western workings of the old Oliver Mine, in <br />surface exposures near the Bear Mine, and in drill holes in the west <br />corner of Section 16, or it may not extend into the North Fork Area. <br />The E Coal Seam in the Minnesota Creek Area is near the middle of the <br />shaley portion of the Upper Coal Member. This seam is consistently 14 <br />to 16 feet thick in all exposures and drill holes on Minnesota Creek. <br />Based on vertical intervals, stratigraphy, general uniformity of <br />thickness, and continuity, as shown by drilling, it is the seam most <br />logically correlated with the coal being mined at the old Oliver Mine. <br />The Oliver Coal Seam, so called after the old Oliver Mine, is the lowest <br />coal seam of the Upper Coal Member exposed in the North Fork. It ranges <br />from 9 to nearly 20 feet thick. Evidence from drill holes, mines, and <br />• outcrops indicates that the bed splits into 2 distinct seams near the <br /> western limits of the Oliver Mine. It is believed, as stated above, <br /> tYiat the lower split should be correlated with the D Coal Seam in the <br /> Minnesota Creek Area. As mining advanced north and east of the old <br /> Oliver Mine portal, the workings of the mine encountered a wedge of <br /> sandstone which thickened at the expense of the coal. This fact, <br /> combined with past drilling data, suggests that a former shoreline <br /> limited the basin of deposition in a northeasterly direction and that a <br /> mineable thickness of coal in the Oliver Coal Seam does not extend far <br /> beyond the limits of the mine in that direction. The F Coal Seam lies <br /> 120 to 200 feet above the Oliver Coal Seam and is separated from it by <br /> varying portions of shale and sandstone. In general, the greater <br /> separation between the 2 coal seams is accompanied by an increase in the <br /> proportion of sandstone. The F Coal Seam has a thickness of 4 to 9 <br /> feet, and is correlated with mineable seams in Sylvester Gulch and <br /> Minnesota Creek. North and east of the portal of the Hawks Nest Mine, <br /> the F Coal Seam splits and becomes thinner. This condition and the <br />• absence of a recognizable coal seam in drill holes, approximately 2 <br /> miles to the east, suggest the mineable thickness of the coal is limited <br />2.04-16 <br />