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602 <br />f~ <br />Conservation Division <br />~~r~ ~ 1 ~~0 - . <br />Memorandum Federal Coal Emergency Lease <br />Application C-29125 <br />To: Acting Area ?lining Supervisor, CRMA - <br />Through: Daniel A. Jobin, Area Geologist, CRHA <br />`~~;,. <br />From: David L. Caskill, Geologist, CRMA <br />Subject: Report on the geology and coal reserve base of coal lease application <br />C-29125 of National King Conl, Inc., sec. 32, T. 35 N., R. 11 W., <br />NMPM, La Plata County, Colorado . <br />SIZE AND LOCATION--The subject emergency lease application b7- National King <br />Coal, Inc., involves the addition of 120 acres in the SW3t sad. 32, T. 35 N., <br />R. 11 W., NMPM, to the adjoining King Coal Mine Federal coal-lease located <br />about 4 miles southwest of Hesperus in the Hay Gulch coal district, La Plata <br />County, Colorado. The additional area is•requested by the applicant in order <br />to maintain their existing mining operation (see Exhibit A, and National King <br />Coal, Inc., 1979). The King Coal lease and the application area cover parts <br />of the Hesperus and adjoining Kline 7~!-minute topographic quadrangles (fig. 1). <br />The subject lands are within the Durango KRCRA. <br />r ~ SURFACE FEATURES--The Hay Gulch coal district lies on a dissected plateau <br />cut by moderately steep-sided canyons and valleys with a topographic relief <br />of about 500 feet. The lease application area ranges from about 7,370 feet , <br />in Pine Gulch to about 7,710 feet in elevation on the divide separating Pine. <br />Gulch from Hay Gulch. The present King Coal Mine entrance is reached by a <br />paved county highway in Hay Gulch. • <br />.": 1 <br />GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE--The lease application area lies about 7 miles south of <br />the La Plata Mountains, a domal uplift that has tilted [he sedimentary strata <br />in the liay Gulch area about 20-4o in a south to southwesterly direction. <br />The interstream divides in the Hay Gulch area correspond to [he regional dip <br />of this monoclinal structure. Significant faults have not been reported in <br />the Hay Gulch coal district, but local flexures in the sedimentary strata <br />indicate that faults of minor displacement may be present. Structure contours <br />shown on figure 2, are drawn at the approximate horizon of the principal coal <br />bed in the lease application area. <br />STRATIGRAPHY--The general coal stratigraphy of [he Hay Gulch area is shown on <br />Figures 2-3, and Exhibit B. Strata exposed in the present King Coat lease :,nd <br />adjoining application area are assigned to the Mesaverde group which here con- <br />sists pf the Cliff House Sandstone at the top, [he coal-bearing Menefee Formation, <br />and the Point Lookout Sandstone at the base. The Mesaverde Croup of this region <br />may correlate with the Iles Formation and part of the idilliams Fork Formation <br />which are coal-bearing in other parts of western Colorado. <br /> <br />Novessber 1993 , <br />