Background:  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the availability of an Environmental Assessment (EA) for BNI Coal, Ltd.’s (BNI) Federal Coal Lease-by-Application (LBA) (Serial Number NDM-102083). The BLM also announced that it will hold a public hearing to receive comments on the EA, Fair Market Value (FMV), and Maximum Economic Recovery (MER) of the coal resources contained in the proposed BNI LBA lease tract on September 12, 2017.  Per this notice, BNI would lease a 160-acre tract of Federal coal located in Oliver County, North Dakota. The lease tract is at the Center Mine and contains approximately 2.43 million tons of in-place Federal coal resources, and BNI plans to mine approximately 1.69 million tons of coal from the tract. The notice also suggests seven topics on which the public should comment, including: (1) costs, including mining and reclamation costs, of producing the coal and the anticipated timing of production; and (2) the quality and quantity of the Federal coal resource.

 

Dates:

• Comments on the EA must be submitted by October 12, 2017. The public hearing will be held on September 12, 2017 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm at the Betty Hagel Memorial Civic Center, 312 N. Lincoln Ave., Center, North Dakota. There is no requirement to RSVP in order to attend the hearing.

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