2013-04-03_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1996083

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Introduction This document is the proposed decision package prepared by the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (Division) for the Bowie No. 2 Mine Permit Revision No. 13 (PR -13). This document includes: 1) the proposed decision to approve the permit revision application; 2) a summary which includes a history of the review of the permit revision application, a description of the environment affected by the operation and a description of the mining and reclamation plan; and 3) the written findings of compliance the Division has made as required by the Colorado Surface Coal Mining Reclamation Act. Detailed information concerning the findings of compliance can be found in the Regulations of the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board for Coal Mining. The Division has received an application for a permit revision to the approved permit application to conduct surface coal mining operations at the Bowie No. 2 Mine. The application was submitted by Bowie Resources, LLC (BRL), operator of the Bowie No. 2 Mine. The mine permit area is located on Federal and Private lands within Delta County, Colorado. The coal to be mined is privately and federally owned, as are the surface lands to be disturbed by mining. Originally, in accordance with direction provided by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), the Division and the OSM considered the Bowie No. 2 Mine to be a private mine, for the purposes of permit and inspection regulation. However, with approval of Technical Revision No. 16, the Bowie No. 2 Mine became a federal mine. Through that revision, BRL was granted permission to conduct mining in a limited area of the Iron Point Tract Federal Lease. Subsequent revisions have added federal coal to the west of the original permit area. This permit revision proposes to add 896 acres to the permit area to include modified Federal Coal Leases COC -61209 and COC- 37210, and revise the B -2 seam mining plan. BRL is proposing this expansion to the north of its existing works so it can mine four additional longwall panels. The planned orientation of the longwall panels located west of the current workings will be rotated 90 degrees to replace four north/south panels with two east /west panels. The area affected by underground mining operations will be increased by 609 acres. No new surface disturbance is proposed with this revision application. The Bowie No. 2 Mine is located about five (5) miles northeast of Paonia, Colorado, adjacent to State Highway 133 and near the old Bowie townsite. The current permit area includes 8301 surface acres, of which 4637 surface acres are privately owned and 3664 surface acres are federally owned. The legal description of the lands included within the present permit area is described in the sections listed below: Township 13 South, Range 91 West, 6th PM Section 2: SW /4NW /4, SW /4 Section 3: ALL Section 4: ALL Section 5: S /2SE /4, SE /4SW /4, S /2NE /4NE /4SE /4, SE /4NW /4NE /4SE /4, E /2SW /4NE /4SE /4, SE /4NE /4SE /4 Section 8: NE /4 1