2010-03-02_REVISION - C1981012 ‎(2)‎

• Permit No: C1981012
• IBM Index Class Name: REVISION
• Doc Date: 3/2/2010
• Doc Name: Incompleteness Letter
• From: DRMS
• To: New Elk Coal Company, LLC
• Type & Sequence: MR92
• Email Name: KAG
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

STATE OF
DIVISION OF RECLAMATION, MINING AND SAFETY
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman St., Room 215
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
LORADO
COLORADO
D I V I S I ON OF
RECLAMATION
MINING
SAFETY
March 2, 2010
Ron Thompson
New Elk Coal Company, LLC
122 West First Street
Trinidad, CO 80182
Bill Ritter, Jr.
Governor
James B. Martin
Executive Director
Re: New Elk Mine (Permit No. C-1981-012)
Minor Revision No. 92 (MR- 92)
Temporary Storage of Coal Waste and Development Waste during Rehabilitation
of the Mine
Dear Mr. Thompson:
We have received your application for a minor revision to your permit to conduct coal mining in
Colorado. Our initial review indicates that all preliminary items required by Rule 2.08.4(5) have
not been submitted. Thus, your application is incomplete for the purposes of filing as of March
2, 2010. Please submit responses to the following questions and where necessary and as
noted, include the discussion as permit text in the appropriate portion of the permit application.
• Please describe in your cover letter discussion why the conveyor cannot be used at
present. Describe the problems with getting the conveyor up and running at the
moment, the costs involved in getting it operational enough to convey this waste, and
the amount of time it would take to get it running.
Please include in your cover letter whether NECC would be willing to consider re-
designating the access road to the RDA as a haul road. This should include a
discussion of what the State Highway 12 crossing safety issues are, and how those
could be offset with CDOT-approved highway flagmen or other methods, as
appropriate.
• Please include as permit text detailed time commitments regarding the length of time
the underground development waste would reside in the coal stockpile areas. As
previously discussed, the mine is currently aware of the need to receive approval for
final disposition of coal mine waste in the long-term and is working on the necessary
permitting in a forthcoming Permit Revision. The Division's current understanding is
the need for temporary storage is a number of months at the maximum.
• A discussion in the permit text of how NECC will ensure that the coal mine
development waste stored in the coal stockpile areas does not spontaneously
combust. If spontaneous combustion is not a problem, the permittee should discuss
why not.
Office of Office of
Mined Land Reclamation Denver • Grand Junction • Durango Active and Inactive Mines