2004-12-07_PERMIT FILE - C1984063

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Lithology is generally marine to non-marine sandstones, siltstones, shales, and coals. A copy of part of the map in the U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1485, Dawn Madden, 1989 shows the geology of the permit area. field mappin indicates the Trout Creek Sanstaon is located just below the "E" Seam (Louie Bendetti Mine). This map is on page 29A. Tim Decker used the correlation from Collins (1976) to determine the location of the Trout Creek Sandstone. Subsequent mapping by Madden (1989) indicates the Trout Creek is actually under the "E" Seam. The Mesa Verde Group consists of two formations; the Iles Formation and the Williams Fork Formation. The Iles Formation extends from the top of the Marcos Shale to the top of the Trout Creek Sandstone. The Williams Fork Formation extends from the top of the Trout Creek Sandstone to the unconformity located at the base of the Wasatch Formation. Coal seams are found in all members of the Iles and Williams Fork formations. The Corcoran Sandstone is capped by the Harvey Gap seam. The Cozette Sandstone is the next major sandstone in the area and then the Trout Creek Sandstone.The E seam (20 feet thick) lies about 50 feet above the Trout . Creek Sandstone. Additional coal seams in the area are the D seam (2.5 feet thick), the C seam (2 feet thick), and the B seam(20 feet thick). The E seam is the coal seam presently mined. It was discovered by Louis Bendetti in the early 1970's and mined in the late 1970's and closed down in 1979. The seam was re-opened by Eastside Coal Company, Inc, in 1983. The B seam appears to be of minable thickness, though it is shaley with several splits. The coals of these two members are in the Black Diamond group defined by Collins (1976). Probably all of the seams have had an exploratory adit driven into them during this century. The strata overlying the E seam was sampled by coring. The strata underlying the E seam was sampled from the outcrop at the exhaust portal. Analyses of the physical properties of these rocks shows that the overlying stratum consists of 69+k sand, 16~ silt, and 15?s clay fractions. The physical description of each strata from Figure 2 and corresponding analyses are found in Appendix I: Soil and rock Analyses. The E seam coal is high volatile B bituminous. The proximate analysis of the E seam coal is given in Figure 6, while the mineral analysis of the ash is listed in Figure 7. South of the permit area, the Wasatch Formation overlies the Mesa Verde Group. The Wasatch Formation is tertiary in age. It's lithology shows soft clayey shales, friable sandstones, conglomeratic sandstones and conglomerates. No evidence was found of the Ohio Creek Conglomerate. 121`\ 29