Going Back In!

When miners in Nova Scotia hear the word precious, they think coal. Forget about what the “Big Board” in Toronto says about metals like gold, silver, platinum or more recently, rare earths, “Coal is King” and to many families in the province; it’s still the most ‘precious’ commodity of all!

And the reason is obvious. Coal and mining have provided generations of families in Nova Scotia with a good way to earn a living. In the past, a tough and dirty way, mind you, but a good and honest living nonetheless.

Over the years, however, as the economy has soured and more and more mines have either closed or have gone into care and maintenance, many people have been forced to give up coal mining and move elsewhere.

It’s been a sad reality throughout the province for some time now, but thanks to the Donkin Coal Alliance (DCA) made up of Xstrata Coal Canada and Erdene Resource Development of Dartmouth, “the boys” may soon be coming home to become miners once again!

Following more than six years of on-going negotiations with various federal, provincial and local authorities as well as potential customers, Xstrata and Erdene are now very close to officially re-opening the old Donkin coal mine and hopefully over the next couple of years, the Donkin Coal Project will be producing approximately 2.75 million tonnes per annum of washed export-grade coking coal.

And what’s even more exciting is the fact that the companies (known as the Donkin Coal Alliance, DCA) expect to be hiring as many as 200 people to work in the mine.

But before any of this happens, however, it’s important to note that the re-opening of the Donkin coal mine has not been a simple, overnight decision because in fact, as mentioned earlier, it’s been (and still is) a very complicated matter in which safety and mine engineering and structural stability are first and foremost before the old mine goes back into production.

Historically the Donkin Coal Project, (located about 20 km east of Sydney in Cape Breton County and comprising an area of roughly 100 km) was being developed in the late 1970s and late 1980s by the Cape Breton Development Corporation but was never brought to development due to the closure of the Crown Corporation. This last remaining large deposit is considered by many to be the highest energy in the Sydney Basin.

Access to the resources required the original owners to build two access tunnels 3.4 km under the Atlantic Ocean at a cost of $80 million. The side-by-side tunnels measure 7.6 m in diameter.

Initial exploration work identified 11 coal seams in an area spanning 8 km east-to-west and 4.5 km north-to-south. Eight of the seams have been intersected in the Donkin area ranging in thickness from 0.5 m to 3.5 m and are typically separated by more than 70 m of interburden. Three of those seams, known as Lloyd Cove, Hub and Harbour, were included in a recent resource estimate and the DCA says that when mining resumes, the company has decided to focus mainly on the Harbour Seam which contains 101 million indicated tonnes and 115 million inferred tonnes of high energy, high volatile bituminous coal with a high sulphur and medium ash content.

The total resource estimate of the three seams of interest stands at 227 million indicated tonnes and 254 million inferred tonnes.

The Harbour Seam is located 2 km off shore and 130 m below the Atlantic Ocean. The floor of the resource has a reasonably consistent grade from outcrop on the sea floor to a depth of more than 1000m in the north part of the licence. The grade across the licence area ranges from 5 to 14 degrees and the seam increases in thickness from 1.9 m to 3.6 m towards the east.

The other two seams (Lloyd Cove and Hub) occur approximately 160 m and 95 m respectively above the Harbour Seam.

The Hub Seam splits into two sections in the Donkin area; the Hub Upper in the west where it ranges from 2.1 m to 2.6 m in thickness to between 0.4 m and 0.7 m thick in Hub Lower.

The Lloyd Cove Seam is the thickest seam in the Donkin area, ranging from 3.1 m to 3.6 m. Unlike the Hub Seam, it is very uniform in character and does not show any seam splitting.

Prior to sealing and flooding the mine in 1992, more than 325 million tonnes of coal had been mined throughout the Sydney Coalfields and DCA is convinced that when the Donkin Coal Project starts up, the entire region will once again attract worldwide attention and a demand for its coal.

As mentioned earlier, getting ready for the re-opening has involved a number of strict requirements, not the least of which has been getting permits for waste recovery and storage, bulk sampling, mining, milling, industrial activities, water use and naturally, environmental assessment.

Waste, in particular, was of concern and settling ponds have been built on the surface to handle water being pumped from the tunnels. Access road upgrades have also been carried out and an old storage/equipment building on site has been refurbished to meet government standards.

A diesel generator has also been set up to provide power to the mine. Recently (April 14th), it was announced that a 2.5 km long access road had begun construction.

The DCA says that permits have been granted for initial production of raw coal on a limited basis and additional permits are being sought to allow for development under the revised coking coal plan.

Advances in coal wash-plant technology mean that what use to be termed “dirty” can be “cleaned’ by removing a significant amount of the impurities such as ash, sulphur and mercury. DCA will be building a new, modern coal wash-plant to process the Donkin coal.

Technically it’s classified as high volatile-A bituminous, high sulphur, medium ash coal based on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) coal classification system. The coal averages 4.5% sulphur and 12% ash and there is little diversity in the coal’s quality from the different seams at the mine.

Washing of the coal by Devco during a pilot scale study, realized 70% to 75% metallurgical product with 3% ash and a total sulphur of 2.1%. Once washed, the low ash and medium sulphur along with low phosphate, high crucible swell number and fluidity made Donkin a quality coking coal blend product.

The Harbour Seam coal was sought after as a coking coal in Europe in the past while the local consumer recalls that it burns very hot, making it excellent for heat generation, steel-making and similar industrial uses.

The ever-increasing demand for steel by China and India further suggests that the Donkin coal mine is a worthwhile project and that’s why DCA is moving ahead with the development based on potential sales into the coking coal market.

DCA says the project is expected to utilize four continuous miners which will be added incrementally over the first three years of production. No long wall mining will be used and a coal-wash plant will be built on site. It’s proposed that the Donkin coal will be shipped from the mine site using a barge-to-ship system. The mine is expected to cost roughly $350 million.

Regardless of where and how the Donkin coal is shipped, the bottom line is that coal mining in Nova Scotia is getting a real shot in the economic arm and many displaced Cape Bretoners will be seeking to return home to an industry they are proud of thanks to the Donkin Coal Project and the Donkin Coal Alliance: Xstrata Coal Canada (75%) and Erdene Resource Development (25%). CMJ

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