Situated 30km south east of Sparwood, in south-eastern British Columbia, the Coal Mountain metallurgical/thermal coal mine produces metallurgical and thermal products for international steelmakers and other industries. Formerly owned by Esso Resources Canada Ltd, and operated by its Byron Creek Collieries subsidiary, Coal Mountain was acquired by Fording Coal in 1994. In 2003, ownership of Coal Mountain was transferred to the Elk Valley Coal Partnership, now 60% owned by Fording Canadian Coal Trust and 40% by the major Canadian mining company, Teck Cominco. Elk Valley Coal is the world's second-largest supplier of metallurgical coal, with an output in 2004 of a near-capacity 24.9Mt. "Enhancements to the processing plant have improved plant yield while allowing greater flexibility in controlling coal quality." After purchasing the mine, Fording embarked on a major mobilisation and upgrading programme that included preproduction stripping, exploration, the purchase of larger, more efficient mining equipment, and significant modifications to the processing plant. Coal Mountain now has a mine capacity of 2.7Mt/y while its washing plant can handle up to 3.5Mt/y of run-of-mine coal. Its actual output in 2006 was 2.0Mt, down from 2.3Mt in 2005 and 2.5Mt in 2004. GEOLOGY As with the neighbouring Elk River coalfield to the north, coal resources in the Crowsnest district are hosted in rocks of the jurassic Kootenay formation. The strata have been extensively folded and faulted, a factor that has helped increase the apparent thickness of seams in some areas. Resources at Coal Mountain are generally of mid-volatile bituminous rank. As of end-2006, the mine's proven reserve totalled over 26Mt of clean coal, with a further 111Mt of measured and indicated resources. These are contained within three coal horizons, the largest being the Mammoth seam, which varies from 1m to 200m in thickness across the property. Reserves are adequate to support mining for at least 13 more years at the production rate achieved in 2006. MINE AND PROCESS PLANT OPERATION Open-pit mining is used at Coal Mountain. Overburden stripping and coal production rely on a shovel-and-truck operation. The principal excavators are two O&K RH200 hydraulic shovels with 21 and 26m³-capacity buckets and a LeTourneau 21m³ wheel loader. These are used to load overburden and interburden into the operations' fleet of 136t- and 218t-capacity haul trucks. Enhancements to the processing plant, including the addition of the most up-to-date process control technology, have improved plant yield while allowing greater flexibility in controlling coal quality. In common with Elk Valley Coal's other operations in British Columbia and Alberta, Coal Mountain's washing plant has an automated sampling system on its product stream. Online neutron-activated ash and moisture analysers are used to provide data that permits the plant's operators to monitor and tightly control product quality. PRODUCT TRANSPORTATION The loading process at all of Elk Valley Coal's operations is monitored by a central computer which controls the automated system. Rail cars can be loaded to within 0.5% of their capacity to prevent over- or under-loading. "Elk Valley Coal is the world's second-largest supplier of metallurgical coal." Access to its parent company, Canadian Pacific's, rail system and the export port at Roberts Bank provides Elk Valley Coal with one of the lowest cost transport systems in the world, on a per-tonne-per-kilometre basis. CP Rail uses 112-wagon unit trains to handle Fording’s output, making a round trip over the 1,175km-long journey from the south-eastern BC mines to the coast in around 85 hours. Roberts Bank, operated by Westshore Terminals, has an annual throughput capacity exceeding 22Mt and is the largest coal-loading port on the west coast of North America. Elk Valley Coal has over 600,000t of storage capacity at Roberts Bank, where the loadout can accommodate bulk carriers in excess of 250,000dwt. Elk Valley Coal also ships coal east by rail to Thunder Bay terminals at the port of Thunder Bay, Ontario, while direct rail links to the central and eastern USA provide further access to important markets for the company. COAL QUALITY Typical quality parameters for Coal Mountain products are:
|   Location of Coal Mountain. | ||||||||||||||||
 Landscape of Coal Mountain. | |||||||||||||||||
 Typical cross-section at Coal Mountain operations. | |||||||||||||||||
 Coal Mountain processing plant. | |||||||||||||||||
 Trucks and loader. | |||||||||||||||||
 Canadian Pacific Railway Co’s 112-car unit trains to transport its products to tidewater. | |||||||||||||||||
 Westshore terminals, with an annual throughput capacity exceeding 22Mt. |
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