| The Rainbow Gap facility is a 137-acre surface contour and auger mine
located in Bell County, Kentucky. Owned and operated by Ikerd-Brandy,
Inc. of Middlesboro, mining began in January in 1990, and coal removal
was completed in September 1992. The operations plan called for the
mining of three coal seams. Throughout the life of the mine,
approximately 718,000 tons of coal were removed. In recognition of their
outstanding mining and reclamation efforts, Rainbow Gap received the
1999 Kentucky Commissioner’s Award for Excellence in Reclamation. |
The Rainbow
Gap site has been reclaimed to a post-mining land use of fish and
wildlife habitat
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As an added benefit, the company also remined and reclaimed
approximately 230 acres (14% of the total permit area) of abandoned land during
the life of their operation. The company successfully fulfilled, and exceeded,
the post-mining land use by closely following recommendations specifically
developed for this site by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife
Resources. Due the proximity of the site to a public road, accessibility and
future use of this area by the community is assured.
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