Laserfiche WebLink
Mine Name Date Opened <br /> Dutch Creek No. 1 Mine 1956 <br /> Dutch Creek No. 2 Mine 1963 <br /> L. S. Wood Mine 1965 <br /> Bear Creek Mine 1970 <br /> Coal Basin Mine 1974 <br /> 52. The Coal Basin mines produced a bituminous metallurgical coal sold to steel <br /> manufacturers and used in the steel making process. <br /> 53. Raw coal mined from the Coal Basin mines was cleaned in Coal Basin at the <br /> Coal Creek Preparation Plant by a three-stage process in which impurities,principally rock <br /> and other incombustibles,were removed.Reject material from preparation plant processing <br /> was placed on mine waste or refuse piles in Coal Basin.After preparation plant processing, <br /> cleaned coal was temporarily stored in a series of surface storage bins adjacent to the <br /> preparation plant to await truck transport to the railhead. <br /> 54. Cleaned coal was moved by truck approximately 23 miles from the cleaned <br /> coal storage bins in Coal Basin to MCR's rail load-out facility, the railhead, approximately <br /> one mile east of the Town of Carbondale,Colorado,where the cleaned coal was off-loaded <br /> from the haul trucks,weighed and conveyored into a unit train load-out facility. Coal was <br /> moved to customers via unit trains. <br /> 55. Well before any time pertinent to either the bankruptcy proceeding or any <br /> of circumstance predicating this action,MCR operated the Coal Basin mine property subject <br /> to a reclamation permit issued by the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board pursuant <br /> to the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Act, 14 COLO.REV.STAT. §§ 34-32-101 through- <br /> 127(1995 Repl.Vol.), and the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act, id.§§34-33- <br /> 101 through -137. This obligation is recognized and an integral part of the PLAN (see e.g., <br /> PLC\ §,5, 1.25, 1.30 and 4.3.2; and see Answer ¶¶ 81-84,post). <br /> MCR 1991 Shut Down <br /> 36. Following a devastating underground fire in the Dutch Creek No. 2 Mine <br /> in 1990, MCR ceased all mining operations on January 25, 1991. Except for skeleton <br /> maintenance and patrolling crews—"mothballing"personnel—all mining personnel were <br /> terminated. <br /> 57. Following shut-down of mining operations, MCR began efforts to sell the <br /> Coal Basin properties. <br /> CIVIL No.97 CV 131-3 -6- AMENDED ANSWER&COUNTERCLAIMS <br />