Lease for Sale Navajo Transitional Energy Company, Spring Creek Mine Federal Coal Lease-by-Application MTM 105485-01, Big Horn County, MT

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Bureau of Land Management</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A2407-014-004-065516; #O2412-014-004-047181.1]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Lease for Sale Navajo Transitional Energy Company, Spring Creek Mine Federal Coal Lease-by-Application MTM 105485-01, Big Horn County, MT</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Bureau of Land Management, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of coal lease sale. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> Notice is hereby given that Federal coal resources in lands in Big Horn County, Montana, will be offered for competitive lease by sealed bid in accordance with the provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The lease sale will be held at 10 a.m. Mountain Time (MT) on October 6, 2025. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The lease sale will be held in the Main Conference Room of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Montana State Office, 5001 Southgate Drive, Billings, Montana 59101. Sealed bids must be submitted to the cashier, BLM Montana State Office, at this same address. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Tessa Wallace, telephone: 406-896-5086; email: <E T="03">tlwallace@blm.gov.</E> Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This sale is being held in response to a lease-by-application filed by Navajo Transitional Energy Company. The Federal coal resources to be offered are contained in four tracts located on the following described lands: <EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Principal Meridian, Montana</HD> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">T. 8 S., R. 39 E.,</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> Sec. 35, E <FR>1/2</FR> ; </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">T. 9 S., R. 39 E.,</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> Sec. 1, lots 1 thru 4, W sec. 2, NE <FR>1/4</FR> . </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">T. 9 S., R. 40 E.,</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> Sec. 6, lots 5 thru 7, S . </FP> The areas described aggregate 1,262.57 acres, according to the official plats of the surveys on file with the BLM. </EXTRACT> The coal in the tracts have two economic coal beds, which are designated as the Anderson coal bed and the Dietz coal bed. The Anderson bed overlies the Dietz bed with a thin parting which is taken with the coal. The Dietz bed is separated into the Upper Dietz and Lower Dietz beds, the parting of which ranges from inches to feet. The parting between the upper and lower Dietz beds increases in thickness to the east and is removed as waste during the mining process. The Anderson/Dietz beds are present in all four tracts and have a combined average thickness of 77 feet. The tracts are located adjacent to Spring Creek's current mining operation and contain approximately 167.5 million tons of mineable coal. The composite coal quality of the Anderson/Dietz coal beds and splits are as follows: Heat Content (Btu/lb.) 9,486 Btu/lb.; Moisture 24.8 percent; Ash Content 3.6 percent, Sulfur Content 0.31 percent. The tracts will be leased to the qualified bidder of the highest cash amount, provided that the high bid meets or exceeds the BLM's estimate of the fair market value (FMV) of the tracts. The minimum bid for the tract is $100 per acre or fraction thereof. The minimum bid is not intended to represent FMV. The authorized officer will determine if the bids meet FMV. The sealed bids should be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, or be hand delivered to the Public Room, BLM Montana State Office (see <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> ), and clearly marked “Sealed Bid for MTM 105485-01 Coal Sale—Not to be opened before 10 a.m. MT on October 6, 2025.” The Public Room representative will issue a receipt for each hand-delivered bid. Bids received after 9:30 a.m. MT on October 6, 2025, will not be considered. 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. Prior to lease issuance, the high bidder, if other than the applicant, must pay the BLM the cost recovery fee in the amount of $344,773.00, in addition to all processing costs incurred by the BLM after the date of this sale notice (43 CFR 3473.2(f)). A lease issued because of this offering will require payment of an annual rental of $3 per acre, or fraction thereof, and a royalty payable to the United States pursuant to section 7(a) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 207(a)) as amended. Bidding instructions for the tracts offered and the terms and conditions of the proposed coal lease are included in the detailed statement of lease sale, copies of which are available at the BLM Montana State Office (see <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> ). Documents in case file MTM 105485-01 are available for public inspection at the BLM Montana State Office Public Room. <EXTRACT> <FP>(Authority: 43 CFR 3422.2)</FP> </EXTRACT> <SIG> <NAME>Tessa L. Wallace,</NAME> Branch Chief, Solid Minerals, BLM Montana/Dakotas. </SIG> </SUPLINF> <FRDOC>[FR Doc. 2025-17752 Filed 9-12-25; 8:45 am]</FRDOC> </NOTICE>