Published: April 1, 2024 |

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Despite geological challenges last year, the West Elk Mine in the North Fork Valley continued to lead mines statewide in Colorado in coal production.

The underground mine last year saw a sizable drop in production, contributing to a statewide drop, though the mine’s owner, Arch Resources, has said it had returned to normal production levels by the year’s end.

Statewide production last year totaled about 11.7 million tons, down from about 12.33 million tons the year before, according to data from the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety.

West Elk Mine produced about 3.42 million tons for the year, about one million tons less than in 2022, but it still beat out the Deserado Mine in Rio Blanco County as the state’s top producer last year. Deserado produced about 3 million tons last year, up from about 2.6 million tons in 2022.

In April 2023, Arch Resources said it was dealing with “geologic challenges at the West Elk mine in Colorado that acted to constrain volumes and erode product quality at that operation.” It said it expected the challenges to continue over the next two quarters, “at which point the mine expects to transition to an area of more advantageous geology.”

In announcing its fourth-quarter results in February, Arch reported “the return of strong production levels at West Elk,” and said it expects normalized production levels to continue there throughout the year.

Also last year, the Colowyo and Trapper mines, which both supply the nearby Craig Station power plant in Moffat County, produced 1.7 million and 1.6 million tons of coal, respectively. The Foidel Creek Mine in Routt County produced 1.28 million tons, the King II Mine in La Plata County, 643,142 tons, and the New Elk Mine in Las Animas County, 65,439 tons. According to the state, the New Elk Mine ceased producing and went idle by last June, and was employing no miners by the end of the year.

Altogether, 1,059 miners were working in the state’s six producing mines as of the end of the year, according to state data. That’s down from 1,093 at the end of 2022. West Elk led in employment at the end of the year, at 300 miners. That’s followed by 211 at Foidel Creek, 170 at Colowyo, 161 at Deserado, 117 at Trapper, and 80 at King II.

Production in the state in recent years has ranged from 10.3 million in 2020, when coal demand was hampered by the pandemic, to 2022’s 12.33 million. But the 2022 level was less than half the 28.6 million tons produced a decade earlier. In 2012 the North Fork Valley still had three producing mines instead of just one, and West Elk alone produced almost 7 million tons of coal.

Production peaked in the state in 2004 at nearly 40 million tons. Production is expected to fall considerably in coming years due to Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s plans to close its Craig Station, the sole customer for the Colowyo and Trapper mine, by the start of 2028.

Under a legal settlement, the Deserado Mine’s sole customer, the Bonanza power plant just across the border in Utah, must stop burning coal once it finishes burning 20 million tons of coal during this decade.

State data shows no coal miners in Colorado were killed on the job last year. In terms of injuries, Deserado had nine; Foidel Creek, seven; King II, six; West Elk, five; and Colowyo, New Elk and Trapper, one apiece.

Source: The Daily Sentinel

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