October 15, 2011

A 24 year-old man working at the New Elk Coal Mine has suffered serious injuries while on the job. Jerry DeVaul survived tours of duty with the US armed forces in Afganistan and Iraq, only to reportedly lose both of his legs after being run over in an accident at the mine near Trinidad, CO.

TK Mining, owners of the mine, had no comment on the report. New Elk reopened this year after being closed for nearly two decades.

Read article at http://www.koaa.com/news/worker-loses-both-legs-in-mine-accident-near-trinidad/

October 15, 2011

An agreement between the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Great Northern Properties has been changed to balance so that the amount of mineable coal that each side receives is the same. The new agreement still allows the Northern Cheyenne to reclaim the mineral rights for lands that are part of the its reservation, which was always the tribe’s primary goal and a grievance dating back to 1900. But whereas the tribe had previously agreed to give up 150M tons of coal on land outside the reservation to receive 110M tons of coal on land inside the reservation, the revised agreement has both sides exchanging 110M tons of coal reserves.

The revised deal must now be approved by the Bureau of Land Management to determine that it is fair and equitable. Because different kinds of coal have different value, an equal tonnage may not in fact be worth the same amount. Additionally, the federal government is a third party in the complicated transaction, and stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in royalties as a result of the transaction.

Read article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_c0038c26-f72d-11e0-836f-001cc4c03286.html

October 10, 2011

Arch Coal’s Dugout Canyon mine recently eclipsed more than two years of mining without any lost time accidents for its employees, and the adjacent Castle Valley Preparation Plant is now going on five years without a lost time accident. While a May 6, 2011 accident did result in lost time for a contractor, employees have accrued more than 1M manhours of work without an accident, far below the national rate. Even including the contractor accident, the mine is far below the national injury rate.

Read article at http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/52692521-79/canyon-dugout-mine-coal.html.csp

October 11, 2011

A West Virginia circuit judge has sent a permit denial for the proposed New Hill West mountaintop removal mine in Monongalia County back to the state Environmental Quality Board asking the EQB to provide a more detailed reason for denying the permit. In March, the EQB said that the WV Department of Environmental Quality erred in granting the water permit without considering pollutions limits on the water discharged including conductivity, dissolved solids and sulfates. While the ruling doesn’t overturn the EQB’s decision, the EQB is required to detail the reasoning it used in making the decision.

Meanwhile, Patriot Mining has filed a notice with the EQB saying that it believes that the judge’s ruling means that it is now allowed to move forward with the mining operation. Furthermore Patriot said that if it is not allowed to move forward, the Sierra Club (who originally brought the case to the EQB) should be required to post $2M/month bond to cover the profits that Patriot claims it is losing through the delay.

Read article at http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/10/11/judge-sends-patriot-permit-back-to-eqb/

October 7, 2011

On Friday, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority agreed to allow 11487 acres of land near Chickaloon to be leased for coal mine exploration. In return, the Authority will get annual lease payments of $45948 as well as 5% of the gross profit of any coal that is eventually mined from the site. These payments will help the AMHTA deliver more treatments in-state for people with mental health, head injuries and similar medical conditions.

The move was strongly opposed by the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, especially in light of the recent Wishbone Hill exploration going by very near the AMHTA site. “There was a lot of environmental damage that occurred due to the original mining and railroad that came in and essentially our tribe has spent the last 100 years trying to recover from that,” said a spokesperson for the council. “And to see projects like this being proposed again when we know that there are health problems that are associated with toxic coal dust and several other problems, our tribe is very concerned, not only for our citizens’ health, but for our future generations and our culture and our connection to the land itself.”

Read article at http://www.ktuu.com/news/ktuu-valley-residents-question-proposed-coal-mining-land-lease-20111007,0,4205314.story

October 4, 2011

The Powder River Basin may soon be one step closer to a first demonstration of a new technology called Underground Coal Gasification (UGC). Australian company Linc Energy says it’s “on the cusp” of asking Wyoming state officials for a permit to try the new technology and they hope to have the facility producing syngas in 2012.Underground Coal Gasification uses wells to inject hot oxygen and air into deep coal seams. The hot gases partially combust the coal in the seam and then release to the surface a mix of gases including syngas, a coal-based alternative to natural gas.

However, not everyone is thrilled about Linc’s proposal. Shannon Anderson, who represents some landowners, says that many of her clients have had difficulty negotiating with Linc and getting details out of them about how their surface rights would be affected by the development. “We have significant concerns about the lack of information that has been disclosed to the public about these proposals,” she said.

Read article at http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_4ddff894-87f6-59dc-8b3b-c31e32e4a61e.html

October 3, 2011

Arch Coal has reached a settlement to end a lawsuit claiming six of its coal mines were polluting surface waters with the heavy metal selenium. All but $200k of the $2M settlement will go to the Land Use and Sustainability Clinic at the West Virginia University College of Law; the remaining $200k will go to the federal government.

Arch will also be required to set up increased selenium monitoring systems at the mines, as well as face an increased fine of $25k per future violation, and pay attorney’s fees and expert witness cost for the public-interest environmental groups that brought the lawsuit.

Read article at http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9Q4UFMG1.htm

September 24, 2011

A state court hearing Tuesday will feature Arch Coal and the state of Montana trying to fend off arguments by environmentalists that they didn’t follow proper procedure in leasing the 1.3 billion ton Otter Creek coal tracts. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups will argue in front of state judge Joe Hegel that the state’s study of mining impacts needed to be done before the lease was sold and that by delaying that study the mining has become a fait accompli; the state and Arch say that the proper time for such review is when the mining permits are issued.

Because of a checker-board land ownership map, Arch Coal agreed to pay the state $86M plus royalties for the right to mine the Otter Creek tracts, in addition to $73M payments to the private owners of the land. The state argues that this $86M payment only gets them the exclusive rights to apply for the permits, not the right to actually mine the coal. The last time the issue came to court in January, Judge Hegel found the “fait accompli” argument was a reasonable one.

Read article at http://www.chron.com/news/article/Montana-lines-up-with-Arch-Coal-to-defend-mine-2186895.php

September 23, 2011

Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) have requested the General Accounting Office release financial statistics about mining on Federal land, arguing that the information is crucial as Congress works on the budget and contemplates opening up new areas in the West for mining.

Rep. Grijalva says we already know that hard-rock mining, including uranium, pays no federal royalties. “How much has the taxpayer lost? How much is this land really worth? And what should be the parameters in the future in order to collect a fair return for the American taxpayer?”

Read article at http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/22325-1. Read the letter at http://grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=13&parentid=5&sectiontree=5,13&itemid=1097

September 22, 2011

Thomas Harrah of Seth, WV has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for faking the foreman’s licence that he used at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine and the lying to investigators about it. Harrah had previously pled guilty to faking a foreman’s license and using it from January 2008 to August 2009 at the Upper Big Branch mine, but said that he had lied when he told to investigators that Massey officials had helped him get the fake license.

While Harrah performed key safety inspections at UBB during the time he pretended to be a foreman, he was transferred to another mine eight months before the April 5, 2010 explosion; federal officials have not claimed that he was responsible for that explosion. The only other person to face criminal charges in the wake of the disaster is security director Hughie Elbert Stover, who is accused of trying to divert government agents investigating the disaster. He is scheduled for trial in October.

Read article at http://wvgazette.com/News/201109221802