PERMFILE132656

• Permit No: C1981008A
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 3/25/2003
• Section_Exhibit Name: NH2 Section 2.05.2 Operation Plan/Estimated Areas for LoO
• Media Type: D
• Archive: Yes

• During overburden removal operations, some selective handling of material will be performed based
on chemical and physical core data contained in Section 2.04.6, Geology Description, and
discussions presented in Section 2.05.4(2)(d), Topsoil (Redistribution).
After the upper coal seam is removed the parting material, composed of alternating layers of
sandstone, shale or clay, sometimes alternating, will be removed. Partings and interburden
material may range in thickness from a few tenths of a foot to over 20 feet. The thinner partings
will be removed by loader or dozer and hauled or pushed into an adjacent mined out pit. The
thicker partings and interburden will be dozed into a mined out pit or excavated by the shovel and
trucks and hauled to a mined out pit.
After the overburden or parting has been removed above each individual coal seam, a dozer,
loader or motor graderwill clean off any overburden or parting material remaining on top of the coal.
In order to facilitate handling of the coal, a dozer will rip or break up the coal. Contracted haulage
trucks of approximately 25 ton capacity will be loaded by a wheel loader. Once a truck is loaded,
the coal will be transported approximately six miles to the power station. Table 2.05.3-1 lists the
major mining equipment to be used at the New Horizon Mine.
Periodically, a small temporary coal stockpile will be established out of, but adjacent to, the pit,
• along the side of an existing haul road. Coal will be hauled to this stockpile by the overburden
removal shovel and truck fleet. This will serve to facilitate the mining process by removing coal
from the pit that would otherwise impede the movement of overburden material. An example would
be the removal of coal from the upper seam to the temporary stockpile when the normal rate of
shipping directly from the pit would not be fast enough to expose sufficient parting for the
overburden removal fleet. The stockpile will always be located in an area with controlled drainage
to a permitted discharge outfall. Stockpile parameters will rarely exceed 4,000 st or thirty days in
duration and the location will change depending on the rate of pit migration.
The estimated coal tonnage, overburden and parting volumes to be extracted and corresponding
swelled volumes for all mining areas are presented on Table 2.05.3-2.
Mining began in 1993 and will carry on through at least 2010. The coal quantities required from the
New Horizon Mine under Western Fuels-Colorado's contract to supply Tri-State Generating and
Transmission Associations' Nucla Station are estimated to be from 320,000 to 400,000 tons per
year. For purposes of this permit application, the maximum rate of 400,000 tons per year was
assumed. Whenever possible overburden stripping and coal loading will be sequenced to maintain
an in-pit inventory of approximately one month's coal requirements. Additionally, overburden
• (REVISED 10/2002) 2.05.3 - 2