Archive | Coal

https://www.producer.com/

In central Alberta, near the banks of the Battle River, sit the remains of the Diplomat coal mine. The site was originally the homestead of Austing Bish and his four sons, who arrived in the Forestburg area from Oregon in 1905. The family farmed their homesteads and began to exploit the coal deposits in the Battle River Valley.

In the early days of coal mining, underground mines, also called gopher holes, were dug into coulee banks into seams of coal. Coal was removed by hand.

As the demand for coal increased, tunnels were used to create drift mines using the room and pillar technique to mine the coal. “Rooms” were areas where the coal had been removed and could be as long as 60 metres. Pillars were layers of coal left to support the overhead roof of layers of clay and topsoil. Continue Reading →

https://financialpost.com/

Steelmaking coal would be exported to key markets of China and India

In a project that provides a window into the future of Canada’s vast natural resources, a joint federal-provincial panel on Tuesday kicked off a review of an Australian company’s proposal to reopen a part of southwestern Alberta to coal mining after a nearly four-decade absence.

Benga Mining Ltd., a Calgary-based subsidiary of Australia’s Riversdale Resources Ltd., which is itself owned by Perth-based Hancock Company, is looking for approval to build an open-pit steelmaking coal mine near Crowsnest Pass, about a three-hour drive southwest of Calgary.

Although Riversdale is only proposing one mine, known as the Grassy Narrows Coal Project, other companies are also hoping to build mines in the area and approval or rejection of the project could be a bellwether for the fate of other developments. Continue Reading →

https://nationalpost.com/

A proposed coal mine that would create hundreds of jobs but shear off a mountaintop in one of Alberta’s most sensitive environments is to go to a public hearing this week.

Riversdale Resources, proponent of the Grassy Mountain steel-making coal project near the town of Blairmore in the province’s southwest, says the mine would create two decades of solid employment and improve a site scarred by previous development.

Environmental groups and some residents fear it could unleash toxic metals into the headwaters of the Oldman River watershed relied on by everything from endangered trout to downstream cities. They say an approval would open the door to similar large, open-pit mines up and down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Continue Reading →