Elkview Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Elkview Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Elkview Coal Mine	Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada	49.742507, -114.823906 (exact)

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

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	–	–

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
9	5.2	2022	Surface	Open Pit	124	60*	920

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
258.5	–	678.8	–	Bituminous	Met	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Teck Coal Partnership	Teck Resources [95%]; Nippon Steel [2.5%]; POSCO [2.5%]	Canada, Japan, South Korea

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
ROM	6.2	6.66	7.1	6.67	9	5.4	5.4

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September and December supplements.

Background

Elkview Mine is a surface coal mine, operated by Teck Coal near Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada. Teck has a 95% partnership interest in the Elkview mine. The remaining 5% is held equally by Nippon Steel Corporation and POSCO, a Korean steel producer, each of which acquired a 2.5% interest in 2005 for US$25 million. The mine is 27,054 hectares of coal lands of which 3,599 hectares have been mined or are scheduled for mining. Elkview is primarily steelmaking coal, and a small amount of thermal coal. The annual production capacities of the mine and preparation plan are approximately 5.6 million and 6.5 milllion tons. At 2010 production rates, the Elkview mine is estimated to have a remaining reserve life of approximately 41 years.

• Operator: Teck Coal
• Owner: Teck Coal (95%), Nippon Steel (2.5%), POSCO (2.5%)
• Location: Sparwood, British Columbia, Canada
• GPS Coordinates:49.742507, -114.823906 (exact)
• Mine Status: Operating
• Start Year:
• Production: 7.9 million tonnes
• Mineable Reserves:
• Coal Type: Met, bituminous
• Mine Size:
• Mine Type: Surface
• Number of Employees: 920

Environmental Impacts

According to the Environmental Justice (EJ) Atlas, over the past two decades, scientists and citizens have been alerting to the fact that populations of fish, invertebrates and other marine animals in the area have been decreasing while the remaining populations have been displaying increasing deformities.

These phenomena are due to the high presence of selenium in the waterways of the valley, a substance which is necessary to human health in small doses but becomes toxic in high doses, and which is detrimental and potentially lethal to other non-human animals including fish.

The selenium comes from the Elk Valley Mines, which extract metallurgical coal necessary for the manufacturing of steel by applying a “cross-valley fill” technique. The rock is first scraped from the surface of the mountainside after which the coal is separated from the rest of the material, which becomes waste. The waste material, which contains the selenium deposits, is left in piles and, through exposure to air and water, slowly seeps selenium into groundwater, eventually reaching river bodies.

Mine Expansion

In April 2020, Teck completed its Elkview Operations Plant Expansion Project. The expansion gave Elkview the capacity to produce nine million tonnes annually. It also allowed Teck to replace higher cost production from its Cardinal River operations (which closed in the second half of 2020) with lower cost production from its Elkview operations.

Proven and probable reserves at Elkview are now projected to support mining for a further 30 years, extending the life of the mine to 2047.

Project Expansion Details

• Status: Operating
• Capacity: 9 million tons per annum
• Mineable Reserves:
• Start Year: 2020
• Source of Financing:

Articles and Resources

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.