Coal leases, exploration licenses, etc.: Wyoming,

[Federal Register: August 25, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 164)]

[Notices]

[Page 46405-46406]

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:fr25au99-105]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[WY-920-09-1320-01; WYW139975]

Notice of Competitive Coal Lease Sale; Elk Mountain/Saddleback Hills Tract; WY

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that certain coal resources in the Elk Mountain/Saddleback Hills Tract, described below, in Carbon County, Wyoming, will be offered for competitive lease by sealed bid in accordance with the provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.).

DATES: The lease sale will be held at 10 a.m., on Wednesday, September 29, 1999. Sealed bids must be submitted on or before 4 p.m., on Tuesday, September 28, 1999.

ADDRESSES: The lease sale will be held in the First Floor Conference Room (Room 107) of the Wyoming State Office, 5353 Yellowstone Road, P.O. Box 1828, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82003. Sealed bids must be submitted to the Cashier, Wyoming State Office, at the address given above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mavis Love, Land Law Examiner, or Melvin Schlagel, Coal Coordinator, at

[[Page 46406]]

307-775-6258 and 307-775-6257, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This coal lease sale is being held in response to a lease by application (LBA) filedby Ark Land Company, a subsidiary of Arch Coal, Inc. The coal resources to be offered consist of all reserves recoverable by a combination of conventional surface, highwall, and underground mining techniques in the following-described lands located in the east central portion of Carbon County approximately 10 miles southeast of Hanna, Wyoming, and about 3 miles north-northeast of Elk Mountain just north of the Medicine Bow River:

T. 20 N., R. 79 W., 6th P.M., Wyoming

Sec. 6: Lot 6; T. 21 N., R. 79 W., 6th P.M., Wyoming

Sec. 20: Lots 1-10, NWNW, SWSW;

Sec. 30: Lots 5-20;

Sec. 32: Lots 2-5; T. 20 N., R. 80 W., 6th P.M., Wyoming

Sec. 4: Lots 5-7;

Sec. 6: Lots 7, 8, 13-16;

Sec. 12: Lots 1 (N2), 2 (N2 & SW), 3; T. 21 N., R. 80 W., 6th P.M., Wyoming

Sec. 22: Lots 1-16;

Sec. 24: Lots 1-16;

Sec. 26: Lots 1-16;

Sec. 28: Lots 1-12;

Sec. 32: Lots 1-6, 9-11;

Sec. 34: Lots 1-16. Containing 5,205.565 acres.

There are no coal mining operations in the immediate area of the lease tract that would be able to include the LBA into an existing operation; therefore, development of the coal reserve will require a new mine start. There are no oil and gas wells or Federal oil and gas leases on the LBA tract.

The lease tract contains coal reserves in several seams but only the Johnson Group is considered to be economically recoverable. For mining purposes, the Johnson Group makes up a single seam on the lease tract. This seam averages just under 20 feet thick for the offered Federal coal but varies from about 8 feet thick at the outcrop in the southeast to about 28 feet thick underground in the northern portion of the proposed mine area. No significant splits or riders in this seam are apparent from current drilling information.

The overburden above the Johnson seam increases rapidly from the coal outcrop of the proposed mine area. The average stripping ratio for the LBA is 7.69:1 BCY/ton using a cut-off stripping ratio of 12:1 to define coal reserves recoverable by conventional surface mining techniques.

The LBA tract contains an estimated 65.78 million tons of recoverable coal using a combination of conventional surface, highwall, and underground mining techniques. The overall average quality for the LBA coal is 11,262 BTU/lb, 8.8 percent moisture, 9.2 percent ash, and 0.54 percent sulfur. These quality averages place the LBA coal reserves at or above the coal quality for the nearby Hanna Basin mines.

The tract will be leased to the qualified bidder of the highest cash amount provided that the high bid equals the fair market value of the tract. The minimum bid for the tract is $100 per acre or fraction thereof. No bid that is less than $100 per acre, or fraction thereof, will be considered. The bids should be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, or be hand delivered. The Cashier will issue a receipt for each hand-delivered bid. Bids received after 4 p.m., on Tuesday, September 28, 1999, will not be considered. The minimum bid is not intended to represent fair market value. The fair market value of the tract will be determined by the Authorized Officer after the sale.

If identical high bids are received, the tying high bidders will be requested to submit follow-up sealed bids until a high bid is received. All tie-breaking sealed bids must be submitted within 15 minutes following the Sale Official's announcement at the sale that identical high bids have been received.

The lease issued as a result of this offering will provide for payment of an annual rental of $3 per acre, or fraction thereof, and a royalty payment to the United States of 12.5 percent of the value of coal produced by strip or augur mining methods and 8 percent of the value of the coal produced by underground mining methods. The value of the coal will be determined in accordance with 30 CFR 206.250.

Bidding instructions for the tract offered and the terms and conditions of the proposed coal lease are available from the Wyoming State Office at the addresses above. Case file documents, WYW139975, are available for inspection at the Wyoming State Office.

August 16, 1999. Michael Madrid, Acting Deputy State Director, Minerals/Lands Authorizations.

[FR Doc. 99-21641Filed8-24-99; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-22-P