Unable to buy coal from the closed Westray mine at Plymouth, N.S., provincial utility Nova Scotia Power Corp. will purchase an additional 300,000 tonnes coal from Cape Breton Development Corp. (Devco) of Sydney during the next six months.
The utility will also buy an additional 100,000 tonnes coal from strip-mine operator Nova Construction in Westville, N.S., to help feed its generating plants at Trenton, N.S. Westray was to have supplied low-sulphur coal; the higher-sulphur Devco coal will be mixed with the more acceptable Nova coal for burning at the Trenton facilities.
Westray was closed after a May explosion in which 26 miners were killed. An inquiry into the mining disaster, which was set to begin Oct. 19, was deferred by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge. Charges were subsequently laid against four mine managers and Westray owner Curragh Inc.
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