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STATE OF COLORADO <br />DIVISION OF RECLAMATION, MINING AND SAFETY <br />Department of Natural Resources <br />1313 Sherman St., Room 215 <br />Denver, Colorado 80203 <br />Phone: (303) 866-3567 <br />FAX: (303) 832-8106 <br />COLORADO <br />D I V I S I ON OF <br />RECLAMATION <br />MINING <br />SAFETY <br />27 February 2009 Bill Ritter, Jr. <br />Governor <br />Ms <br />Jennifer Sekulski Harris D. Sherman <br />. Executive Director <br />Colowyo Coal Company, LP Ronald W. Cattany <br />5731 State Highway 13 Division Director <br />Meeker, CO 81641 Natural Resource Trustee <br />Re: Colowyo Mine C-1981-019 <br />Preliminary Adequacy Review - Technical Revision 77 <br />Dear Ms. Sekulski: <br />The Division has received Colowyo Coal Company's (Colowyo) submittal of Technical <br />Revision 77 - highwall mining in the South Taylor Pit. The revision was received on 9 <br />December 2008 and deemed incomplete on 19 December 2008. Colowyo subsequently <br />provided additional information on 15 January 2009 and the revision was deemed <br />complete on 30 January 2009. The Division has reviewed the revision and has the <br />following questions and comments. <br />Rule 4.23 - Auger Mining <br />1. On revised page ST/LW-Rule 2, page 129, Colowyo indicates that the <br />targeted highwall mineable seams may include the X, A, B, C, D and E. The <br />included report from Agapito Associates, Inc, (Agapito) dated 13 April 2007, <br />states that their study is for the E2 seam highwall mining in the southern <br />portion of the West Pit. Based on the information contained in the Agapito <br />report, there is no information that highwall mining will be performed in any <br />other seam. If Colowyo is planning on mining any other seams in South <br />Taylor besides the E-Seam, a report containing a study of the potential <br />impacts and designs of these additional seams needs to be forwarded to the <br />Division for review. If Colowyo is only planning on mining the E-Seam, <br />please change the above referenced text description to reflect this fact. <br />2. The above referenced Agapito report states that the drill hole information used <br />to develop the web and barrier pillar designs came from holes WP-05-07 and <br />WP-05-08, with WP-05-08 being nearer to the mining. This information is <br />shown on the enclosed Figure 1, which shows the locations of the drill holes <br />as well as the location of the proposed highwall mining. The report and <br />Office of Office of <br />Mined Land Reclamation Denver • Grand lunction • Durango Active and InartivP MinPc