Friday, February 03, 2006

The new boom of Northeast Coal

For roughly 20 years the area around Tumbler Ridge produced about 10 to 11 millions tonnes of coal per year. When the Bullmoose and Quintette mines closed many people assumed that this was the end of the line for Tumber Ridge and for coal mining in the area.

Turns out the talk of demise was premature. There are now plans for up to six mines in the region that could be producing 18 million tonnes of coal by 2010. The first two are operating already. Ultimately the mines could have as many as 3000 people employed in getting the coal from the the ground to the trains.

The value of this coal production will be an economic value of twice the film and TV business in BC.

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