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<br /> <br />Colowyo continues to perform reclamation activities in the East Pit and West Pit. Reclamation <br />in the East Pit is expected to conclude in 2016 and the West Pit in 2020. <br /> <br />Permit, Performance Bond, and Bond Release History <br /> <br />The permanent program mining permit was issued on 4 November 1982. Five successive permit <br />renewals have been approved subsequent to the initial permanent program permit approval; the <br />most recent, Permit Renewal No. 5, was issued 14 September 2009, for a permit term that will <br />expire 5 November 2012. Colowyo submitted an application for Permit Renewal No. 6 on 12 <br />March 2012. The Division is currently reviewing Renewal No. 6 application. The Division <br />currently holds a reclamation bond, in the form of three corporate sureties, in the amount of <br />$69,517,828.65. <br /> <br />The Colowyo Coal Company applied for four previous bond releases: SL-01 was a Phase I/II Bond <br />Release submitted on 2 June 1987 and approved on 8 October 1987; SL-02 was a Phase I Bond <br />Release submitted on 25 September 1997 and approved on 27 April 1998; SL-03 was a Phase II <br />Bond Release submitted on 26 September 2000 and approved on 15 August 2001, and SL-04 was a <br />Phase I/II Bond Release submitted on 15 June 2010 and approved 2 May 2011. All areas requested <br />for Phase III bond release in the SL-05 application have previously been approved for Phase I and <br />Phase II bond release (See table 3 in the SL-05 application). See Figure 2 for the location of the <br />previous bond releases at the Colowyo Mine. See Table 2 for the previous bond release acreages <br />and Table 3 for the previous bond release amounts. <br /> <br />SL-05 Phase III Bond Release Application <br /> <br />The SL-05 application was received by the Division on 28 June 2010 and deemed complete on 12 <br />August 2010. Colowyo published notice of the bond release application in the Craig Daily Press <br />once weekly for four consecutive weeks, beginning 2 July 2010 and ending on 23 July 2010. <br />Colowyo notified land owners within and adjacent to the mine permit area, the Office of Surface <br />Mining (OSM), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other interested parties of the <br />application for bond release, as required by Rule 3.03.2(1). No comments, written objections or <br />requests for an informal conference regarding the bond release application were received by the <br />Division. <br /> <br />A bond release inspection was scheduled and conducted on 24-27 August 2010. The site inspection <br />was conducted in accordance with Rule 3.03.2(2). Jim Stark, Sandy Brown and Dan Mathews of <br />the Division; Kurtis Blunt and Jennifer Sekulski of Colowyo; and Jesse Dillon and Steve Viert of <br />Cedar Creek Associates (a Colowyo consultant) attended the inspection. No representatives <br />from BLM, OSM or any other Federal, State or Local agency and none of the land owners of <br />record attended the inspection; however, all parties were notified of the inspection via certified mail. <br />A summary of the bond release inspection and any concerns identified are presented in Section IV, <br />below, and detailed observations of the inspection are documented in the 24-27 August 2010 <br />Proposed Decision and Findings of Compliance 25 July 2012 <br />Partial Phase III Bond Release Sl-05 Page 3 <br /> <br />