Deerlick West Mine

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Deerlick West Mine is a mothballed coal mine in Alabama, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Deerlick West Mine	Alabama, United States	33.2725, -87.458056 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Mothballed	–	–	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	0.0254011716	–	Surface	Open Pit	–	75*	*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
–	–	–	–	Bituminous	–	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Cahaba Resources	Cahaba Resources	USA

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the GEM April 2024 Global Coal Mine Tracker dataset.

Background

Deerlick West Mine is a proposed U.S. surface coal mine in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, owned by Cahaba Resources, LLC.

The proposed Deerlick West mining site straddles Lake Harris Road, an unpaved road. In August 2019, the Tuscaloosa County Commission approved a waiver for Cahaba Resources LLC mining company seeking to operate a surface coal mine off Lake Harris Road. State mining regulations require a buffer of 100 feet from the road’s right of way unless approval is received from the authority with jurisdiction over the road. The waiver would allow the mining company to operate its Deerlick West Mine with a 60-foot buffer from the Lake Harris Road right-of-way line.

Cahaba Resources sought the waiver as part of their permit application to the Alabama Surface Mining Commission (ASMC), which was approved by the ASMC on October 30, 2019. In November 2019, Cahaba was still in the process of acquiring a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination (NPDES) Permit for the site. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) was still reviewing public comments on the proposal gathered in July 2019 in order to make a determination on the permit afterward.

If the proposed NPDES Permit is approved, it would authorize discharges of treated drainage from Deerlick West Mine to Cypress Creek, Yellow Creek, and unnamed tributaries to Yellow Creek, all classified as Fish and Wildlife in the Black Warrior River Basin. Some proposed discharges would also occur upstream of Lake Harris, a state waterbody classified as Public Water Supply.

At some point, it appears that the NPDES Permit was approved, because pre-mining operations began at the Deerlick West mine site in January 2020. This became clear when it was reported that the mine was "improperly discharging water into a stream that flows into the reservoir" of Lake Harris, according to a Tuscaloosa News article. The water was tainted with silt and soil.

In February 2020, officials once again voiced complaints about runoff from the mine into Lake Harris, "when newer water samples showed that sediment loads and chemical compositions were ... higher than permitted levels as outlined in the mine’s federal NPDES permit.

• Sponsor: Cahaba Resources LLC
• Parent Company:
• Location: Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States
• GPS Coordinates: 33.276815, -87.455154 (approximate)
• Status Proposed
• Production Capacity:
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves:
• Coal type:
• Mine Size: 357 acres
• Mine Type: Surface
• Start Year:
• Source of Financing:

Opposition

The City of Tuscaloosa, which is an adjacent landowner, is opposed to the project. It has concerns that the surface mine will affect the natural setting of the Lake Harris area, which has been earmarked for future development as an outdoor recreation attraction. The city is also concerned the mine may potentially affect water quality in the lake, which is one of the city’s reserve drinking water reservoirs.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.