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The New Elk mine permit has been transferred on four occasions. Permit rights were <br />transferred from CF&I Steel Corporation to Wyoming Fuel Company on January 31, 1984. <br />Permit rights were transferred from Wyoming Fuel Company to Basin Resources, Inc. (BRI) on <br />March 29, 1993. In April 1997, permit rights were transferred from BRI to Picketwire <br />Processing, LLC. The permit was transferred from Picketwire Processing, LLC to New Elk <br />Coal Company LLC on March 19, 2007. In March 2010, ownership of New Elk Coal <br />Company, LLC changed to include Cline Mining Corporation as the sole parent company of <br />New Elk Coal Company, LLC. <br />Since the last findings was issued associated with Permit Renewal No. 5 (RN-05) in March <br />2009, minor revisions to the permit have included a temporary bathhouse, temporary waste <br />storage area, temporary slope facilities associated with rehabilitation of the East Portal slope. <br />Technical revisions approved since that time include a boundary change to include the <br />Apache Canyon shafts, temporary and permanent storage of development waste produced <br />during rehabilitation efforts, and additional surface facilities at the mine site. <br />Permit Revision No. 3 (PR-03) application was received by the Division on September 8, 2010 <br />from NECC. On September 10, 2010 the Division called the application complete and <br />notifications of the filing of a complete application for a permit renewal were sent to the <br />applicant, Las Animas County Planning, Las Animas County Commissioners, Colorado Air <br />Quality Division, Colorado Water Quality Control Division, and the US Natural Resource <br />Conservation District. NECC published notice of the permit revision application once a week <br />for four weeks in The Chronicle-News beginning on September 17 and ending October 8, <br />2008. No comments were received as a result of the public notice or the agency notification <br />letters. <br />The Division forwarded adequacy concerns to NECC on November 9, 2010. The Division <br />received responses to these adequacy concerns from NECC on December 13, 2010. The <br />Division reviewed the revised and additional materials submitted and forwarded additional <br />comments to the applicant on December 29, 2010. On January 10, 2011 the Division received <br />final revised materials, absent attachment 2 of Exhibit 40, a letter of acknowledgement of the <br />final reclamation plan and permanent structures. On January 31, 2011, the Division received <br />attachment 2 via electronic mail. <br />An Applicant Violator System (AVS) check was conducted on February 9, 2011 and returned a <br />status of "no violations". The system recommendation was "issue". <br />Description of the Environment <br />The mine site is located in a plateau area. The elevation of the surface facilities ranges from <br />7,400 to 7,800 feet. Land use in the area consists of cropland, rangeland, pastureland, and <br />wildlife habitat. Livestock grazing and hay production on irrigated lands are the main <br />agricultural practice conducted in the general area. A variety of large and small mammals, <br />birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles are permanent or temporary residents of the area. <br />The New Elk Mine is located in the western limb of the Raton Basin. The Raton Basin is a <br />3