Coal

Our coal business includes six metallurgical coal mines in British Columbia and Alberta and is the world’s second largest exporter of seaborne hard coking coal. The Coal Mountain, Elkview, Fording River, Greenhills, and Line Creek mines are located in southeastern British Columbia, approximately 1,100 kilometres from the ports near Vancouver, British Columbia. Cardinal River is located in west-central Alberta, near the town of Hinton.

All of our coal mines produce primarily hard coking coal, which is ultimately used in the production of steel, and small amounts of thermal coal. The mines employ conventional open-pit truck and shovel mining methods and coal preparation plants. Following mining, the coal is washed using a variety of conventional techniques and conveyed to dryers for drying. The coal preparation plants are all conventional wash plants using standard technology of cycloning and heavy media flotation.

Clean coal is shipped mainly by rail to Westshore Terminals and Neptune Terminals near Vancouver, British Columbia for shipment to overseas customers and either directly by rail or by rail and ship to Thunder Bay Terminals in Ontario to customers in eastern North America.