Environmental approval is all that is needed for Curragh (TSE) to open a strip coal mine at Stellarton, N.S. The project is three kilometres from the Westray mine where an explosion in May killed 26 men.
Curragh was given the right of first refusal on the site by the Nova Scotia government in 1988; the right was conditional on development of the more costly Westray mine.
Curragh went ahead with the underground mine and is now seeking ways and means of fulfilling its contract with the Nova Scotia Power Corp. (NSPC). NSPC’s Trenton generating plant requires 700,000 tonnes clean coal per year. The strip mine will provide that tonnage from a scheduled 950,000 tonnes run-of-mine coal (unwashed) per year. However, coal reserves at the strip mine are small and only about two years’ life is expected.
Summer temperatures have limited the demand on the Trenton generating station. “There is almost as much Westray coal on the plant’s stockpile today as there was May 9,” says Gerald Lethbridge, vice-president of production for NSPC.
About 12,000 tonnes coal per month is received by the plant from another strip mine, also in the Stellarton area, and the generators can be fired by oil if necessary. This coal is low in sulphur (about 1%). Reserves at this other strip mine will be exhausted in 1996.
A feasibility report detailing Curragh’s strip project was made public in mid-July. Nova Scotia’s Environmental Agency has 30 days to decide on the future of the project. The agency can give the go-ahead, specify restrictions or require a fully fledged environmental assessment.
The 50-hectare mine site is within town boundaries. It is on the edge of town but a number of homes (the company estimates 21 homes, the residents 30) will be within a few hundred metres of the site.
The mine will employ 102 people, 62 in the pit and 40 at Westray’s washery. None of the overburden or coal (it is the same coal seam as developed at Westray) will need blasting. All excavation will be done with hydraulic excavators.
Be the first to comment on "Curragh plans strip coal mine in Nova Scotia"