Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), Canada-based Western Coal Corp. has announced that it is reopening Willow Creek metallurgical coal mine, located 45 km from Chetwynd, BC, two months ahead of schedule. The company also revealed a reserve increase of 88 percent to 29.6 million mt, extending the mine life and supporting potential expansion to 1.7 million mt per annum.
The mine's current approvals support a production rate of up to 900,000 mt of high quality metallurgical coal per year, with applications underway to increase production by late 2011 to 1.7 million mt per year over a 13-year life of mine. At full capacity, the mine will be employ over 300 people at the mine and plant facilities.
As part of the expansion, it is planned to increase the throughput capacity to the processing plant and rail load-out facility to handle over 3.7 million mt of coal per year to process coal from both the Willow Creek mine and the nearby Brule mine.
Mr. Keith Calder, president and CEO of Western Coal Corp., commented, "With plans to grow production in our northeast BC mines from 2.2 million mt to nearly 6 million mt in three years' time, the reopening of the Willow Creek mine is an important milestone for Western in achieving its goals."