The 1987 Coal Review BYRON CREEK

Byron Creek Collieries, a unit of Esso Resources Canada, operates the Coal Mountain mine in southeast- ern British Columbia. The mine, about 32 km south of Sparwood, B.C., supplies bituminous coal to the thermal and metallurgical markets in Canada and overseas. Major domestic markets are Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia, while export markets include the Pacific Rim, Europe and the U.S. The coal is classified as medium volatile bituminous, and the recover- able reserve totals almost 95.5 million raw tonnes in the 2-sq-mi area.

The Coal Mountain discovery was made in 1905, and a number of surface and underground mines operated intermittently from 1908 until 1948, recovering a total of 2.5 million tonnes of coal. In 1972, Byron Creek acquired control of the two square miles of land on Coal Mountain and, following a major drilling program, brought the property into production in 1974. Esso Resources acquired the operation in 1981.

Open-pit mining has been used to recover raw coal since the operation was reopened in 1974. Annual capacity is about 1.8 million tonnes per year, although current production rates are between 730,000 and 820,000 tonnes because of the current market oversupply. Mining equipment in cludes one hydraulic shovel (19-cu-yd bucket), four front-end loaders (12-cu-yd buckets), five 120-ton rear dump trucks and thirteen 85-ton rear dump trucks, plus support equipment (drills, dozers, graders, etc.).

The coal is processed in a heavy media plant which combines heavy media cyclones, water-only cyclones and a high-capacity thickener to recover product coal. The coal is dewatered mechanically and in a gas- fired fluid bed dryer. The heavy media plant and a new mobile equipment maintenance facility were completed in 1986 as part of a $55-million expansion project at the mine.

About 125 people are employed at the mine which, in 1986, was judged the safest coal operation in the province (based on frequency, severity and Workers’ Compensation Board claims ratio). In 1987, Byron Creek received both the British Columbia Reclamation Award and the Edward M. Watkin Award, for excellence in water management and innovation in reclamation.