Posted on 12/19/2002 7:29:37 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
ROCK SPRINGS -- A group of Utah investors are planning to reopen the historic Stansbury Coal Mine located just north of Rock Springs and again become Wyoming's only underground coal mining operation, officials involved in the effort said Wednesday.
The backers behind the new underground coal-mining venture are hoping the high BTU content of the coal seams will be attractive to markets outside of Wyoming, particularly electrical markets in southern California, Utah and Colorado.
New Stansbury Coal Company, LCC officials also said they want to eventually produce and market a new piece of mining equipment developed for the Stansbury venture that will make coal-mining much more cost-efficient at the facility.
Company CEO Mark Easton said the reopened mine - if given the final go-ahead by investors early next year - will employ about 90 people when in full production.
The new mine will have an estimated annual payroll of $5 million per year, he said. The company plans to tap into the "skilled and talented" county workforce, which includes a large labor pool with vast mining experience, he said.
"Like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes... we hope to become an integral part of the area's economy... and we think with our business plan we can be very successful in reopening the Stansbury mine and making it productive again for the area," Easton told a small crowd of local officials and residents during a luncheon Wednesday in Rock Springs.
"We're going to do everything in our power to make sure the mine is productive, successful and a good corporate neighbor," he said. "And we want this mine to be employed by Wyoming residents."
Easton said the company recently signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement with Rock Springs Royalty Company, a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum, Inc., for the purchase of the Stansbury Mine located about seven miles north of Rock Springs.
Easton said the terms of the deal are confidential and the agreement is contingent upon closing.
He said the company plans to be up and running at full production within three years. The initial mine plan calls for mining 3 million tons of coal per year for 20 years, but the company anticipates the coal reserves will last between 50 and 100 years.
Easton noted thus far, approximately 258 million tons of coal have been mined over the life of the formation. "We hope to equal that historic production someday," he said.
Easton said several factors led to the decision to reopen the old mine, which has operated on and off in Sweetwater County under several different companies since the transcontinental railroad came through Sweetwater County in the 1860s.
The quality of the coal, the equipment already onsite, the growing need for electrical energy produced by coal, the proven reserves and new technology all made the venture attractive at this time, he said.
Coal was last mined at the mine by Anadarko in 1994. Easton said the company had the "foresight" to mothball all the mining equipment at the site for the past eight years while it shifted most of its coal mining operations to the Powder River Basin.
Easton said NSCC has also purchased surplus equipment at going-out-of-business auctions that has been moved to the site.
"We hope to use our initial capital investment to leverage the existing infrastructure at the site," he said. "This will give NSCC the ability to provide a strong, viable and fully-funded operation from its inception."
High quality, low sulfer
Easton said the quality of coal within the Rock Springs/Stansbury/Reliance Formation has long been recognized as some of the highest quality coal in the Intermountain west because of its high BTU content and low ash and sulfer content.
The coal has an average heat index of 13,500 BTUs per pound compared to the current 8,000 to 10,500 BTU average for most Wyoming coal.
He said unlike past recent mining efforts at Stansbury, the new venture would concentrate on mining the outcrops on the eastern slope of the formation instead of the more heavily mined west side of the formation.
"We plan to use geology to our advantage and mine from the east side down the seams.. just like they did in old times," he said.
Easton said the company plans to market coal outside of Wyoming, from the Illinois basin to the West coast, with particular focus on Utah and Colorado.
"The markets outside of Wyoming are in real need of new sources of high BTU coal," he said. "There is a growing need for electrical energy produced from coal... especially in southern California and surrounding areas, which continues to look outside their state for its power needs."
Easton said the company also expects to benefit from the "huge amount of data" generated in the 100-plus years existence at the mine, which should make it easier to quickly get the mine up and running.
"We'll be working with known quantities and known experience, which should give us a real leg up," he said.
NSCC engineers estimate there are over 162 million tons of proven reserves with about 60 million tons of measured recoverable coal within seven coal seams. The coal seams vary from about five feet to 12 feet in height.
And there are seven other coal seams with the company's leases containing unknown and unexplored amounts of coal.
The company's leases are located on checkerboard lands, Easton said. The initial mining effort would be concentrated on private lands and he estimated it would take five years before the agency would reach federal tracts of coal.
New technology
NSCC Managing Director Randall Peterson said the company plans to use new conveyor technology to mine the deposits.
Peterson said the new conveyor technology - the Surface Assisted Continuous Underground Mining Conveyor or SACUM - takes advantage of the formations outcropping geology and allows access to the coal "with maximum economic efficiency."
The monorail-type conveyor belt system, which the company has patented, is safer for workers, he said. It will also allow for "continuous mining" by workers, which should increase production.
Peterson, a former trona mining engineer for a local soda ash plant, said the Stansbury operation will use what's known as the "room and pillar" technique normally used in trona mining.
"Our method will be very similar to the methods used in the trona patch..
and it should increase our coal production by 20 to 30 percent over standard methods of coal mining," he said.
Peterson said miners would follow the downward dip of the coal seam until they reached a "cutoff depth" of approximately 2,500 feet underground.
Easton said once the mining venture is operating, the company also plans to develop, manufacture and commercially demonstrate the SACUM system onsite.
"Our intent is to showcase and market SACUM as newly developed mining equipment that can be used for contract mining or sold to other mining operations," Easton said.
He said pending final approval, the company anticipates it will be four to five months before the company begins production. He said the company plans to open an office in Rock Springs soon.
Easton said the company plans to hire the best available miners and associated employees they can. "We will be a more than competitive participant in the local marketplace... at the high end of the payroll," he said.
High quality, low sulfur coal for generation of electricity!
Enough to keep 'em busy for 50~100 years!
Doggone mine should've never been shut down in the first place.
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