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Description of the Mine Operation Plan <br />Sizes of Permit Area, Disturbed Area, and Production Volumes <br />The permit area covers approximately 11,790 acres, Since mining began, cumulative <br />disturbance will total 445.31 acres by the end of this permit term (2014). The portion of the <br />mine to be permitted under the current application is projected to produce approximately <br />3,200,000 tons of run-of-mine coal per year or 16,162 tons per day. <br />Mining Method <br />Coal is mined at the Deserado Mine using underground mining methods. BME previously <br />extracted coal from the B and D coal seams by utilizing both room and pillar, with pillar <br />extraction and longwall methods. Mining operations conducted during previous permit terms <br />have extracted the D Seam. D Seam mining was completed, and B Seam mining commenced, in <br />1999. B Seam mining will continue during the current permit term. The mine is developed by <br />driving a series of mains and sub-mains with continuous miners. These entries serve as the <br />arteries for coal conveying and ventilation. The mains and sub-mains, which will remain open <br />for the life of the mine, are supported by roof bolts. Additional support may include timbers, <br />steel arches, steel mats, steel mesh and shotcrete. <br />The room and pillar sections are laid out with a multiple-entry development system. A series of <br />rooms and crosscuts will then be mined from the main entries on a spacing to be determined by <br />prevailing geologic conditions. Coal will be cut by continuous miners. <br />At the completion of a panel of rooms, and if conditions allow, the intervening pillars will be <br />extracted, retreating towards the mains. The extraction of most of the pillar coal on the retreat <br />will result in caving of the roof some 50 to 100 feet behind the active mining area. Upon <br />completion of a room and pillar section, the caved area will be sealed off and protected with <br />adequate barrier pillars. <br />BME has designed the mining system to permit the optimum recovery of the coal reserves in the <br />safest and most economical manner. The mining system for the Deserado Mine is primarily the <br />longwall mining method. Some part of the deposit may be worked in the room and pillar (with <br />pillar extraction) mining method. The areas close to the outcrop on the south of the mining area <br />were unsuitable for longwall mining due to the low overburden height. Room and pillar panels <br />RP-1 and RP-2 in the D Seam were excluded from longwall mining because the boundary <br />geometry did not allow longwall mining. <br />Coal Transportation and Processing Waste <br />Raw coal is transported out of the mine by conveyor to the D/B-Portal Area wash plant where <br />the coal is crushed and cleaned. The coal is then transported 3.1 miles to the rail loadout facility <br />via an over-land conveyor system. The coal is conveyed to the slot storage building, which can <br />store up to 25,000 tons of coal. From this building, coal is conveyed one third of one mile to the <br />loadout area. Clean coal is then transported by rail to the Bonanza Power Plant in Vernal, Utah. <br />Deserado Mine 21 June 18, 2009