The Utah State Office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has received an application from West Ridge Resources Incorporated, 794 North “C” Canyon Road, East Carbon, Utah 84520, for a logical mining unit (LMU) modification in accordance with 43 CFR 3487.1(h). The modification application removes the relinquished lease UTU-78562 (2,605.49 acres) partial relinquished lease UTSL-068754 (2,790.55 acres) and private lands (1,189.84 acres) totaling 6,585.88.
The approval of this modification application is proposed to be effective May 1, 2019. Any entity having a direct interest that is or may be adversely affected by approval of the proposed LMU modification has 30 days from the first date of publication of this notice in the Carbon County Sun Advocate and Emery County Progress Newspaper to make a written request for a public hearing to the authorized officer. Such a request should be mailed to BLM, Utah State Office, Attention: Minerals Support Manager, 440 West 200 South, Suite 500, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101.
Following is the proposed decision:
Logical Mining Unit Modification Approved
The application for the West Ridge LMU UTU-88553 modification dated April 4, 2019, is hereby approved effective May 1, 2019. The BLM has determined that it is in conformance with the approval criteria as per 43 CFR 3487.1(h). This determination is based upon the following:
1. The LMU recoverable reserves are capable of being developed in an efficient, economical and orderly manner, as a unit, with due regard to the conservation of the recoverable coal reserves and other resources. Approval of the LMU modification will not affect the recovery, sequencing or development schedule of the contained Federal coal reserves with respect to the approved Resource Recovery and Protection Plan (R2P2).
2. All lands in the LMU are operated by and under the effective control of West Ridge Resources Incorporated.
3. All lands within the LMU, as modified, will be developed and operated as a single operation that will include multiple openings.
4. All lands within the proposed modified LMU are contiguous. The BLM has conducted an in-depth review of the legal land-descriptions for all lands contained in the West Ridge LMU modification application, which shows that there is at least one point in common on all lands.
5. Mining operations will achieve maximum economic recovery (MER) of the Federal Coal reserves within the modified LMU. BLM has approved an MER determination. The modified LMU approval date is May 4, 2016.
6. No Federal coal leases included in this modified LMU are included in any other LMU. There are no other active LMUs in the area.
7. The modification application removes the relinquished lease UTU-78562 (2,605.49 acres) partial relinquished lease UTSL-068754 (2,790.55 acres) and private lands (1,189.84 acres) totaling 6,585.88. Currently there are 9,088.54 acres in the LMU. Upon approval of the modification, the LMU
will contain 2,502.66 acres. The LMU will be comprised of UTSL-068754 (340.32 acres) and three State Institutional Trust Lands leases, ML-47711, ML-49287, and ML-51744 (2,162.34 acres).
Anita Bilboa
Acting Utah State Director
Published in the ETV Newspaper on March 11 and 18, 2020.