September 19, 2011

An official at the Ridley coal export terminal in British Columbia says that the terminal can double the rate at which it exports coal in 36 months. In 2011 the terminal has already sold out at 12 million metric tons, but it already promises to increase capacity in 2012 by another 6 million metric tons. Ridley signed long-term shipping agreements with several Powder River Basin coal mining companies including Arch Coal, Enserco and Cloud Peak.

Meanwhile the larger Westshore terminal in Vancouver is undergoing a $40M expansion to increase its capacity from 29M metric tons to 33M metric tons.In spite of all these increases, as well as proposed terminals in Washington state, export capacity of coal on the West coast of the continent is still constrained in the face of huge demand for coal from Asia according to an official from Ridley.

Read article at http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Coal/6494157

September 14, 2011

The Metro Birmingham NAACP has stepped into the debate about the proposed Shepherd Bend Coal Mine by writing a letter to the President of the University of Alabama. The proposed mine, which would on the Mulberry fork of the Black Warrior River, has already obtained sufficient permits to begin operations, but to become profitable it would need to lease additional land owned by the University of Alabama.

“We want this project to be stopped, basically because we believe that “clean” is a civil right,” said Reverend Anthony Johnson, Community Relations Director for Birmingham Metro NAACP. “We are going to be meeting tomorrow to discuss our next move. As you know at NAACP we believe in direct action and so, but now we are at the stage of negotiation. We’d like to sit down to the table and we understand that Dr. Witt is empowered to make such a called meeting, you know again for those who support this initiative and those who oppose this project and we just want a good faith meeting.”

Read article at http://www.cbs42.com/content/localnews/story/NAACP-joins-opposition-to-Shepherd-Bend-mine/85sSzIvnO0yAxQUF47OYyQ.cspx

September 13, 2011

A fire that broke out three days ago in BHP Billiton’s San Juan Mine appears to have been extinguished. The San Juan Mine, near Farmington, NM in the Four Corners region, first reported the fire Friday morning just before lunch. Two miners were treated for smoke inhalation and released. Using bore holes the mine operators were able to starve the fire of oxygen, and by monitoring temperatures and gas content, they declared the fire likely dead.

BHP Billiton emphasizes that no miners will be allowed back into the mine until its experts and the Mining Safety and Health Administration declares the mine safe, and there will be a full investigation to the cause of the fire once the mine reopens. The fire is the latest problem for a mine whose safety record is far from stellar; MSHA assessed 30 violations in August alone.

Read article at http://www.fireengineering.com/news/2011/09/1499356463/san-juan-mine-fire-may-be-extinguished.html

September 13, 2011

Black Warrior Mineral, owners of the Fleetwood Mine are facing a new lawsuit claiming that Fleetwood is in violation of the Clean Water Act for polluting Hurricane Creek (a tributary of the Black Warrior River) and its tributaries. Non-profits Black Warrior Riverkeeper and the Friends of Hurricane Creek say they filed the lawsuit after building a list of more than 1200 violations of the EPA safety standards by the mine over the last five years including unacceptably high levels of iron, manganese, total suspended solids, as well as overly acidic Ph levels.

“Fleetwood Mine’s numerous violations of the Clean Water Act at Hurricane Creek and its tributaries are unacceptable,” Brooke said in the statement. “Orange, polluted water flowing from this strip mine is an unwelcome sight along this beautiful stretch of Hurricane Creek. Coal mines like this one should not be allowed to operate if they cannot meet applicable effluent standards.” Efforts to reach Black Warrior Mineral were unsuccessful.

Read article at http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2011/09/coal_company_faces_lawsuit_all.html

September 12, 2011

MSHA has posted the fatalgram for the fatality at Peabody Coal’s North Antelope Rochelle Mine. It briefly updates the state of the investigation into the death of Cody Brown, 29, a contractor from Spearfish, SD.

COAL MINE FATALITY – On Thursday September 1, 2011, a 29-year-old contract driller with 1 year, 3 months of experience was killed at a surface coal mine. The victim was attempting to separate a pipe connection when he was struck by a tong wrench. The rig was being used to drill a water well. The crew was working to free the drill stem that was stuck in the drill hole when the accident occurred.

Read Fatalgram at http://www.msha.gov/fatals/2011/FAB11c15.asp

September 5, 2011

Yesterday three men were hurt at Signal Peak’s Bull Mountains #1 mine near Roundup, MT. The injuries are the latest in a rash of problems in the mine which have resulted in the Mining Health and Safety Administration ordering short shutdowns several times in the last year.

The workers were using a roof bolting machine to prevent future roof falls like the ones that had resulted in the previous shutdowns. However, in the process of securing the roof, some rock broke loose and fell on the workers, breaking one man’s hip, another man’s arm, and leaving a third bruised. All three men were hospitalized; the men with fractures required surgery and are still believed to be in the hospital. While MSHA ordered a halt to using the roof bolting machine while they investigated, the order does not affect the normal mining operations of the mine.

Read article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/article_c080bb7d-aa78-5321-8f2c-11ebb3a65317.html

September 1, 2011

A hydrology contract at Peabody Coal’s North Antelope Rochelle Mine became Wyoming’s fourth industrial fatality of the week when he was killed at the mine. Cody Brown, 29, was a contractor from Spearfish, SD working for a well drilling and hydrogeology company. North Antelope Rochelle is the highest production coal mine in the country, and the accident was the first coal mining fatality in the state since a 2008 accident at the Wyodak Mine.

While the exact cause is still being investigated by several state and federal organizations, it appears that a failure of the cables on the tongs may have contributed to the accident. Wyoming has one of the highest rates of workplace fatalities in the country.

Read article at http://www.basinsradio.com/basin/local/local-news/community-interest/18680-breaking-coroner-confirms-death-at-north-antelope-mine.html

August 29, 2011

An appeals court has agreed that the permit for Area IV North of the Navajo Coal Mine must be reassessed to determine the mine expansion’s impacts on the environment and cultural artefacts. The mine permit, reissued in 2004 and revised in 2005, had been challenged by the San Juan Citizens Alliance and Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, saying that both had been done without several parts of the necessary legal review, including evaluating the environmental impacts of disposing of the coal ash from neighboring power plants back into the mine as fill.

In October, 2010, a district court judge agreed, voided the 2005 permit, and ordered further study, stopping the mining of Area IV North until the review was completed. The appeals court ruling upholds this ruling. In the meantime, a new permit has been requested and required public hearings have been held, though it is unclear when the new permit will issue.

Read article at http://www.chron.com/news/article/Environmental-review-of-Navajo-mine-moves-forward-2146516.php

Coal Diver has now been updated to include all coal mines in operation since 1983, with basic statistics, organized by their MSHA-ID.

See link at http://coaldiver.org/msha-id/allmines

August 18, 2011

In an unusual case of a Powder River Basin Coal Lease Auction having more than one bidder, Alpha Natural Resources outbid Peabody Energy by about 12% to win the new Caballo West coal tract expanding Alpha’s adjacent Belle Ayr Mine. Caballo West has an estimated 130M tons of mineable coal, Alpha’s winning $143M bid comes out to be about $1.10/ton of mineable coal, a new record for a coal lease in the Powder River Basin. Additionally Alpha will pay $3/acre annual rent on the property as well as an additional 12.5% of the value of coal produced. With the new lease, Alpha has expanded their total reserves in the PRB by about 20%.

Since the Caballo West tract was just west of Peabody’s Caballo mine, their hope had been to add additional reserves, especially in light of their new contract to supply Ameren with 91 million tons of PRB coal. The contract was a new record contract for Peabody. However, while it is uncommon to have more than one bidder on a coal lease auction, last month Peabody won a different bidding contest from Alpha on another coal lease property in the gap between Caballo and Belle Ayr.

Read articles at http://www.wyomingbusinessreport.com/article.asp?id=59281, http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_0750ee4a-8aab-56a2-9063-00bd0e978cf2.html and http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/stories/Peabody-outbids-Alpha-Caballo-gets-access-to-221M-tons-of-coal-over-Belle-Ayr,59791