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The operational, reclamation, and environmental control information for <br />• the Bear No. 1 and No. 2 Portals is set forth in the Bear Coal Company <br />document submitted to the Division in February of 1981. Environmental <br />baseline information submitted as part of the nearby ARCO Mt. Gunnison <br />Mine is likewise applicable to the operations of the Bear Coal Company. <br />This permit revision discusses the underground and surface support <br />operations associated with the Bear No. 3 Portals. <br />Mine Development and the Cause of the Present Emergency <br />The Bear Coal Company has not ignored its need for additional coal <br />reserves. For the past year, Bear Coal Company has been planning to <br />expand its operation into the adjacent Federal Coal Lease No. D-052501. <br />The Bear Coal Company did not anticipate a short time frame for the <br />current immediate need to receive a revision for facility relocation and <br />subsequent mining in the adjacent area. <br />In 1970, the Bear Coal Company sold surface lands and transferred <br />• mineral rights to ARCO under the assumption that mining from the Bear <br />No. 1 and No. 2 Portals would continue through at least 1982 and perhaps <br />to an unspecified future date. Underground operations in the Bear No. 2 <br />Kline has proceded with plans for pillar extraction to occur once the <br />development was completed. However, in the late spring of 1981, ARCO <br />informed the company that the pillars could not be recovered, even <br />though the Bear Coal Company had developed them. As is widely known, <br />the extraction of pillars from an underground mine is the most <br />economical and best method of making production from room and pillar <br />underground operations. <br />With the ARCO notice of limited pillar recovery, almost two million tons <br />of coal will be left intact; this coal will probably be lost for future <br />recovery even though Bear Coal Company put forth the time, expense and <br />effort to prepare these pillars for extraction on retreat from the mine. <br />And, unfortunately, with the untimely notice of ARCO, Bear Coal Company <br />is now forced to limit future mining activities, thus causing the most <br />• immediate need for approval to mine in the adjacent area. <br />7 <br />