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Dollar Amount of Bond to be Released <br />The Coal Gulch Mine is a permit-revocation/bond forfeiture site. No bond money exists for release <br />because the bond was forfeited to the State as was used for reclamation of the site. The former <br />permittee is not due any monetary consideration of any kind as a result of this TOJ process. <br />II. HISTORY OF THE COAL GULCH MINE <br />Permit and Operations <br />The Coal Gulch Mine was first permitted by the Amess-McGriffin Coal Company under Division <br />Permit No. 77-3 ug/c. This permit was issued on October 4, 1977 in accordance with the Colorado <br />Mined Land Reclamation Act, which took effect on July 1, 1976. A reclamation bond was posted for <br />this permit in the amount of $13,750. <br />In June and July of 1979, the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board (MLRB) issued two Cease <br />and Desist Orders to Arness-McGriffin Coal Company. One was for conducting surface coal mining <br />operations where only underground mining activities were approved, and the other was for <br />conducting mining operations outside of the approved permit area. The disturbance situated outside <br />of the approved permit area that was the subject of the second Cease and Desist Order is uphill and <br />to the east of the permitted Coal Gulch Mine, and became known informally as "Amess-McGriffin". <br />Following the August 3, 1977 passage of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, <br />the State of Colorado received approval of its permanent Coal Program on December 15, 1980. On <br />February 17, 1981, Amess-McGriffin Coal Company submitted a permanent program application for <br />the Coal Gulch Mine as abatement for the two Cease and Desist Orders. The File number for the <br />Coal Gulch Mine permanent program application was C-1981-042. This application, however, was <br />never deemed Complete. On August 15, 1981, Permit No. 77-3 ug/c for the Coal Gulch Mine <br />expired. The $13,750 reclamation bond was left intact at that time. <br />On August 30, 1984, Peerless Resources Inc submitted another permanent program permit <br />application for the Coal Gulch Mine. The File number for this application was C-1984-067. This <br />application included the main surface disturbances created by Arness-McGriffin Coal Company <br />under Permit No. 77-3 ug/c that were situated within the topographically lower area of the Coal <br />Gulch Mine. The unpermitted disturbance created by Arness-McGriffin Coal Company, situated <br />uphill and to the east of the main Coal Gulch Mine area, was not included in the Peerless Resources <br />Inc permit application No. C-1984-067. <br />Following a posting of a reclamation bond in the amount of $140,000, Permit No. C-1984-067 for <br />the Coal Gulch Mine was issued to Peerless Resources Inc on November 18, 1985. The unapproved <br />disturbance created by Amess-McGriffin Coal Company remained unpermitted, though covered by <br />the $13,750 bond that had been submitted by Arness-McGriffin Coal Company for the Coal Gulch <br />Mine under Permit No. 77-3 ug/c (which had expired on August 15, 1981). <br />2