Sage Creek mine
| This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor. |
| Sub-articles: |
| Related-articles: |
Sage Creek Mine was a proposed U.S. coal mine near Oak Creek, Colorado, by Peabody Energy. As of October 2019, the project has not progressed in more than two years, and appears to be shelved.
Location
The below satellite image shows the location for the partially constructed mine near Oak Creek, Colorado.
Background
Located just northwest of the existing Twentymile Mine along Routt County Road 27, Sage Creek was Peabody Energy’s primary focus in Northwest Colorado in 2010, and the company spent $2 million to build a 200-foot-in-diameter traffic roundabout to allow it to safely haul more coal through the intersection of county roads 27 and 27A.[1]
In January 2012, Peabody Energy said it had secured long-term supply agreements for 40 million tons of Colorado coal and would open a new mine—Sage Creek Mine—to replace its nearly tapped out Twentymile Mine near Oak Creek, Colorado. The Twentymile Mine is nearing the point that it can no longer access the coal it has been mining from its location west of Steamboat Springs. The mine is situated in a geologic area noteworthy for alternating ridges and draws (anticlines and synclines) where the coal, buried in layers of sandstone and shale, is sometimes within 100 feet of the surface and sometimes 1,200 feet below the surface, according to Twentymile officials who described the need to move the mine in April 2010.[2] Relocating the coal mine to the new Sage Creek operation would have allowed Peabody to continue extracting low sulfur coal from the Wadge coal seam, but at a more accessible point a few miles to the northwest.[2]
The new mine would have provided an additional 105-million-ton reserve. The project was estimated to cost $200 million. A key contract for Sage Creek would have been to supply the Hayden Station, operated by Xcel Energy.
Although the new mine portal has already been built, the project has been declared "temporarily idle."[1] According to an October 2016 application to amend a Special Use Permit, Peabody Energy states: "Under current market conditions, further development and mining has been deferred for the Sage Creek Mine while the Twentymile Mine develops and mines additional reserves in the underlying Wolf Creek Seam. It is intended that as the available and recoverable underground reserves are depleted at Twentymile (7-10 years), planned development and mining will be reinitiated at Sage Creek and will continue well into the future."[3]
Project Details
- Sponsor: Peabody Sage Creek Mining LLC
- Parent Company: Peabody Energy
- Location: Oak Creek, Colorado, United States
- GPS Coordinates: 40.4738765, -107.1616244 (exact)
- Status Shelved
- Production Capacity:
- Total Resource:
- Mineable Reserves: 105 million tons
- Coal type: Bituminous
- Mine Size:
- Mine Type: Underground
- Start Year:
- Source of Financing:
Articles and resources
Related GEM.wiki articles
- Colorado and coal
- U.S. coal politics
- Coal and jobs in the United States
- Coal phase-out
- Headquarters of U.S. coal mining companies
- Global list of coal mining companies and agencies
- Proposed coal mines
- Coal
To see a listing of coal mines in a particular state, click on the map:
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Does Sage Creek Mine Have a Future?: Peabody Sage Creek mine has a date with Routt County for renewal of coal hauling permit,” Tom Ross, Steamboat Pilot Today, December 1, 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Peabody Energy gives OK to Sage Creek" Tom Ross, Steamboat Today, January 27, 2012.
- ↑ Peabody Coal Haul (formerly Sage Creek Mine Coal Haul) Special Use Permit Amendment Routt County Government, Oct. 12, 2016.
