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Description of the Operation and Reclamation Plans <br />Of the 3,585 acres originally permitted at the New Elk Mine, 155 acres were already disturbed <br />for working areas and facilities. Permit Revision #1 added 120 acres to the permit area, of <br />which 36 acres were affected by new, proposed surface facilities. The resulting permit area <br />encompassed 3,705 acres with 191 acres of surface disturbance. No disturbed acreage has <br />been released from bond as of February 1999. However, a large area south of Highway 12 <br />was released of further liability as per Division written policy for release of areas overlying <br />underground workings. Included in this area are two small areas of surface disturbance, the <br />Apache Canyon ventilation shafts, which were transferred to the Golden Eagle mine permit, <br />#C-81-013. The resulting permit area totals about 900 acres. <br />The existing operation at the time of original permitting consisted of several benches used for <br />storage, office building, shop buildings, railroad tracks, 2 portals, conveyors, coal silos, <br />substations, fans, air shafts, a water tank, a parking lot, four sediment ponds, ditches, culverts, <br />roads, and a refuse disposal area. Surface facilities added as a result of permitting actions <br />included a refuse disposal valley fill and sediment pond north of Highway 12, two new topsoil <br />stockpiles, coal stockpiles, conveyors, and a preparation plant and thickener tank. <br />Presently, the New Elk facility is proposed for processing and loadout operations only. Further <br />coal production is not planned at the New Elk Mine. During active mining, the workings <br />progressed mainly to the south and east. Coal was mined by both continuous miners and <br />longwall mining methods. Only one seam, the Allen seam, was mined. <br />A Refuse Disposal Area (RDA) was constructed north of Highway 12 as a valley fill. Currently, <br />coal is not being processed at the New Elk Mine due to the cessation of operations at the <br />Lorencito Canyon mine. During past processing operations, coal refuse was transported by <br />conveyor over Highway 12 and deposited in the RDA north of the highway. Pond cleaning <br />material and small quantities of rock will not be added to the RDA, but were added to the <br />original refuse pile, now referred to as the Development Waste Pile (DWP) southwest of the <br />main mine entrance. The DWP reached its maximum size in late 2006 and was regraded, <br />topsoiled, and reseeded. Presently, there is no permitted area on-site for development waste <br />or coal waste other than the RDA that is accessible only via the refuse conveyor belt. <br />6