With its head office in Calgary, Fording Coal employs about 1,300 personnel in Alberta and British Columbia. Established in 1968 to devel op coal re serves in the Fording River Valley, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian Pacific in 1986, when cp bought Cominco Ltd.’s 40% interest.
The Fording River operation is about 29 km northeast of Elkford in the Elk Valley region of southeastern B.C. The operation’s primary product is high-quality metallurgical coal, used to make coke for the international steel industry. Also produced and sold worldwide is thermal coal, used by power utilities, cement companies and other industries.
The mine’s proven reserves consist of more than 300 million tonnes of clean coal found in 12 different seams ranging in thickness from 1.5-12 m. Th e active mi ne site covers 3,900 ha and embraces a further 15,600 ha of adjoining coal lands.
Primarily a truck/shovel operation, the mine also uses a 45-cu-m dragline in its 24-hr-per-day operation. Clean coal production in 1986 exceeded 4.8 million t onnes, an increase of 20% over 1985 and a record for the mine. Mining productivi ties were 7% higher in 1986 when compared to 1985 and represent an improvement o f almost 150% over the past five years.
Fording River operations employs a total of 1,165 staff and hourly production personnel. In October, 1986, new collective agreements with two locals of the us wa, covering 1,060 workers, were concluded, running to April 30, 1989.
A record sales volume of more than five million tonnes was achieved in 1986 — more than one million tonnes greater than the previous high established in 1984. Of Fording’s sales in 1986, 52% went to Japan, 20% to other Pacific Ri m countries, 12% to North America and 8% each to South America and Europe. In late 1986 negotiations began with Japanese Steel Mills for an extension of the original 15 -year coal-supply agreement.
In early 1986 Fording acquired from Elk River Mining a 50% interest in the Elk River Mining property. The property is north of Elkford and is under technical and economic evaluation. Fording Coal would become the manager of any future dev elopment with its joint venture partners, Stelco Inc. and Home Oil.
In January, 1986, Fording initiated its first Alberta operation, with contract mining at the TransAlta Utilities Corp.-owned Whitewood mine, at Wabamun, some 65 km west of Edmonton. The 5-year contract calls for two million tonnes per year to be delivered to the Wabamun Power Plant, which has a net generating capacit y of 569 MW.
A typical prairie open-cast mine, the Whitewood uses a 45.8-cu-m dragline as the primary earth-mover and employs 90 staff and hourly production workers. Coal deliveries to the power plant were 2.2 million tonnes in 1986. Substantial gains in mine productivity were achieved in Fording’s first year of operation.
A 2-year collective wage agreement with the Alberta Strip Miner’s Union is up for negotiation next month. Genesee Power Project
Fording, in a joint venture arrangement with the city of Edmonton, will develop and operate the Genesee Coal mine, about 55 km southwest of the city. The mine , using mainly draglines, will supply three million tonnes of sub-bituminous coa l annually for the Genesee Power Plant, adjacent to the mine. The plant will con sist of two 400-MW generating units. In December, 1986, the Energy Resources Con servation Board (ercb) confirmed the operational timetable with the first unit t o be on stream October, 1989, followed by the second unit in 1991. Brooks Coal Project
Fording Coal has 120 million tonnes of sub-bituminous thermal coal reserves in the Bow City area, about 28 km southwest of Brooks, Alta. Fording received approval from the ercb to develop a coal exploration test pit and for use of a rail load-out siding at Cassils, Alta. Work on the test pit began in mid-November and ended in mid-December, resulting in the stockpiling of more than 10,000 tonnes of coal at the mine site. Test pit approval was gran ted for a total of 30,000 to nnes, samples of which are essential to the development of the proposed mine. Po tential markets for this coal have been identified in Alberta, the Great Lakes a rea, the U.S. and the Pacific Rim.
In December the company filed an application to develop a mine capable of producing up to 300,000 tonnes per year. Review of this application by governmental agencies and public disclosure meetings are scheduled for early 1987. *
In December the company filed an application to develop a mine capable of producing up to 300,000 tonnes per year. Review of this application by governmental agencies and public disclosure meetings are scheduled for early 1987.
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