ROUNDUP – Developers of the Signal Peak Mine south of Roundup expect to send its first shipment of coal by summer, coal destined for Ohio power plants.
Miners are extracting a daily 3,000 tons of coal and sending it to a stockpile that will shrink when coal shipments to the Midwest begin.
“We measure it in tons, but we really sell energy,” said Michael Placha, vice president of Signal Peak Mine and the related Global Rail.
Placha, whose resume includes the planning and design of coal-mine surface facilities around the globe, said he sketched the concept for the Signal Peak Mine in the summer of 2007. Late last July, the Ohio-based Boich Cos. and FirstEnergy bought the property with plans to invest $450 million in developing both the mine and the related 31-mile railroad to Broadview.
With completion slated for summer, the entire project will have gone from conceptual to complete in less than two years.
Two hundred feet beneath the ground’s surface, miners are working on two rectangular “panels” of coal, one stretching 22,000 feet to the south and the other running alongside the first, but about a mile shorter.
The entire coal seam, which covers about 50 square miles, holds upward of 1 billion tons of coal reserves. At the production rate currently anticipated, that is enough to last for 30 years.
Above ground, a host of facilities have erupted from foundations that were poured during the depths of winter. Buildings, tanks and storage piles are linked by 10,000 feet of conveyor systems.
“It saves from using trucks and hauling,” Placha said. “And it’s less impact on the land.”
The coal stockpile began in February and has grown to about 250,000 tons, enough to fill nearly 20 trains. Before shipment, the coal must pass through a screening and crushing building, where chunks up to 8 inches in diameter will be reduced to one-quarter of their size.
The facilities above ground include concrete coal-storage silos, and a processing plant for removal of rock and impurities. This month the plant had climbed 40 feet into the air, 60 feet short of its ultimate reach.
“From the time the coal is mined to the time it’s in the train car could be eight hours,” Placha said.