Mining coal

In most cases, geology determines how coal is mined in Canada. Nearly all of our country’s coal is mined from the surface from strip mines or open pits.

In the mountains and foothills of Alberta and British Columbia, coal seams are twisted and faulted. These are usually mined from large excavations, known as open pit mines. As mining progresses, pits are widened and deepened to follow the coal seam. Most open pit coal mines produce metallurgical coal. Before being transported, metallurgical coal is crushed, sized and washed in a processing facility on site to prepare it for sale.

Strip mining is used throughout the Prairies and in New Brunswick where coal seams are horizontal and close to the surface. Large machinery exposes and extracts the coal in a series of rows (strips). Most strip mines produce thermal coal to fuel nearby electric power generation plants and industrial installations.

Currently, the only operating underground mine is found on Vancouver Island, B.C.

Strip mining of coal

1. Soil covering the mine site is removed and stockpiled for subsequent land reclamation.
2. A large excavating machine (dragline) removes layers of soil and rock covering coal seams (overburden), and digs out the coal.
3. Coal is loaded into large haulers and trucked to a nearby power plant or industrial installation, or prepared for rail shipment.
4. Once the coal has been removed from a mine area, land is reclaimed. Bulldozers begin by grading and contouring overburden and materials left by the dragline.
5. Soil, salvaged before mining, is replaced on the site.
6. The land is replanted with vegetation, and returned to productive use.

Open pit coal mining

1. Waste rock is drilled and blasted to expose coal seams.
2. Electric shovels or backhoe excavators remove layers of soil and rock covering coal seams (overburden).
3. Shovels load coal into haul trucks for disposal in worked-out pits.
4. Dozers and backhoes push exposed coal down to bench floor.
5. Excavator places coal into trucks with specially designed coal boxes for transport to rotary breaker. As each bench level is completely mined, the mining sequence begins again.