The 1987 Coal Review CROWS NEST

Crows Nest Resources, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell Canada, operates the Line Creek mine in the Elk Valley area of southeastern British Columbia. The mine started production in 1982 in order to serve long-term contracts for supply of thermal and metallurgical coal in overseas markets. Its principal customers are in South Korea and Japan, although smaller shipments have been made to many other countries, such as Brazil and the United Kingdom. As a result of the oversupply in export coal markets, Line Creek is now operating well below its capacity of some three million tonnes per year, with 1.7 million tonnes of clean coal expected to have been produced in 1987. Productivity improvements continued to be achieved last year, in response to stiff competition.

Mining is entirely by open-pit methods using conventional truck- and-shovel equipment. Only the rock over-burden and inter-burden is blasted, to allow shovel-loading. The coal, on the other hand, is very friable and is not blasted prior to loading by hydraulic shovels or backhoes.

Raw coal is hauled from the pit some 12 km down Line Creek Canyon to the preparation plant in the valley of the Elk River.

The plant is designed to process thermal or metallurgical coal separately and simultaneously through two circuits. Clean coal is stored in silos prior to shipment by unit train to the Westshore Terminals facility at Roberts Bank.

Crows Nest also holds other coal properties in Alberta and British Columbia. Activity at these various sites was minimal in 1987. The most advanced of these, the Telkwa Project near Smithers, B.C., has obtained approval-in-principle from the British Columbia government. But markets must improve before further work can be justified.