New Nova Scotia coal mine

Work should begin in January, at the latest, on a new dedicated underground thermal coal mine in Stellarton, N.S.

The mine has been in the plans of Westray Coal Inc., 50%- owned by Giant Yellowknife Mines (TSE) since early 1987 when it acquired the property from Suncor Inc. (TSE) and Placer Dome (TSE). The Nova Scotia Power Commission (NSPC) operates a soon-to-be-expanded coal-fired electric generating st ation near Trenton, N.S., a mere 11 km away. The mine has been designed to produce one million tonnes of low-sulphur coal to be burned at that plant, starting in 1991.

Capital costs are projected to be $120 million.

The project will be financed by conventional debt financing, according to Westray President Kurt Forgaard, with 85% of the loan being guaranteed by the federal government’s Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

Mineable reserves of low- sulphur bituminous coal, rated as a high-volatile Class A coal, are 54 million tonnes in one seam — more than enough, even at a 45% extraction ratio, to satisfy a 15-year supply contract with NSPC. One million tonnes of clean coal will be produced per year.

The gently-dipping seam, which ranges from 2.5 m to 8.5 m thick, will be mined by room and pillar methods using at least four boom-mounted, cutterhead-type continuous mining machines.

The coal treatment plant, which should cost about $55 million to construct, will consist of a crushing, screening, heavy-media separation and drying circuits.

Two parallel ramps, 1,687.5 m long, and measuring 6 m wide and 3.5 m high, will be driven through waste rock at a dip of about 14 degrees to provide access and ventilation to the mine.

The contract for this work, which should take about two years to complete, will be let in the next couple of months, Forgaard tells The Northern Miner.

About 310 people are expected to be employed at the mine when it reaches full production in 1992.

Although not as large, this is the first new coal mine announced in Canada since the huge northeast coal development project in British Columbia. Clifford Frame was president of Quintette Coal at the time, one of two open pit coal mines developed in that project which cost about $1.2 billion. Frame is now chairman of Westray Coal. (about 9 inches)


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