This Westech 830E body rides on a Komatsu chassis at a Powder River Basin mine. It has a capacity of more than 240 tons. Depending on the customer’s specifications, Westech’s builders can complete a customized industrial truck body in as little as three weeks.
Westech photo
Minerals give big push to state
By Steve Peck
Publisher
Minerals are the economic powerhouse of Wyoming again this year, with a diverse mix of products, markets and geography building an enviable tax base which keeps Wyoming’s fiscal profile one of the best in the United States.
With more than 600 individual operations, from the biggest coal mines of the Powder River Basin to the smallest gravel crusher Torrington, Wyoming’s mining industry wrote paychecks to 11,433 workers in 2007.
Added to the similar numbers employed by the state’s vigorous oil and gas industry, and the state’s economy is truly “energized,” with minerals and other energy production likely providing more than 27,000 primary jobs, at the highest average wages in the state.
The Wyoming Consensus Revenue Estimating Group pegged minerals employment — including mining, oil and natural gas, at about 18,000 in April, up by nearly 1,000 from a year earlier.
The fastest-growing state employment sector over that same time frame was transportation, much of it tied to haulers and other transport contractors working for energy companies without being directly involved in the extraction, milling and refining of the minerals and energy commodities themselves.
Coal, coal, coal
Wyoming’s coal industry continues to do what it has done for 50 years: mine more coal, with more people, than any other place on Earth.
The phenomenal reserves of the Powder River Basin, with significant contributions from the coal mining regions of Lincoln and Sweetwater counties as well, combined to produce a 452,134,704 tons of Wyoming’s versions of “black gold” in 2007 — another record — about 8 million tons more than the previous year.
Primary employment in coal also jumped again last year, up from 6,030 in 2006 to 6,463 by the end of 2007.
The increases continued a long, unbroken streak of advancement for Wyoming coal. Just 10 years ago, the industry was working to crack the 300-million-ton barrier for the first time, and there were fully 2,000 fewer workers employed.
The last time the coal industry didn’t post a production increase was 1986. That was the only production dip in the past 50 years.
Campbell County, containing the world’s richest concentration of known coal reserves accounted for 402 million of 452 million tons of state coal production. Converse County, whose coal areas also are part of the Powder River Basin geographically, produced 34.4 million tons, with 10.1 million tons coming from Sweetwater County, 5.1 million tons from the Kemmerer Mine in Lincoln County, and 443 tons from the small operators in Hot Springs County.
Powder River Coal’s mammoth North Antelope Rochelle Mine was the coal king for the year, topping out at 91,523,280 tons mined, edging the 88 million-plus tons at Thunder Basin Coal’s Black Thunder mine, which was the 2006 production leader.
The figures are certified by the office of Terry W. Adcock, the Wyoming State Inspector of Mines.
New kid on the coal block in 2007 was the mine operated by New Stansbury Coal Co. east of Rock Springs.
The mine reported 2,550 tons for the year with projected output of 3 million tons when peak production is reached.
On the drawing board is the Youngs Creek mine north of Sheridan. Veteran coal executive Steve Johnson took the helm of the new venture on April 24, with a production target of 2010 once siting and permitting is complete.
Trona
The “Big Four” of southwest Wyoming’s world-class trona mining region combined for 16,865,209 tons of commercial-grade product in 2007.
General Chemicals claimed the production honors for 2007, digging 4.65 million tons under the supervision of manager Peter J. Kalivas.
FMC’s Westvaco mine was good for 4.19 million tons with an industry-leading work force of 792. Jim Pearce heads the managerial staff was Westvaco. FMC also operates the Granger mine, which was occupied in solution operations last year rather than traditional underground mining.
Solvay Chemicals saw output of 4.06 million tons and celebrated its distinction as the Wyoming mine safety award winner for large underground operations. Ron Hughes is resident manager.
On the “Big Island” at OCI Wyoming, 420 workers produced 3.97 million tons of trona under the direction of site manager Michael Hohn.
The trona patch saw an 18-million-ton production decrease last year. Primary employment was 2,225, down 34 from 2006.
Bentonite
Miners of the “miracle” mud in Wyoming saw production dip below 6 million tons in 2007. After 2006 tonnage of 6.1 million, the 2007 figure was 5.89 million.
Employment in the bentonite mines and mills was up, however, peaking 848 statewide. The 2006 work force was 798.
Production leaders were the familiar names in Wyoming bentonite, with American Colloid’s Lovell and Colony operations combining for more than 2.3 million tons. Colloid’s Belle/Colony mine was the biggest in the state at 1.73 million tons mined.
Bentonite Performance Minerals mined 1.5 million tons of bentonite at Colony and Lovell, while M-I SWACO’s Greybull mine and mill saw 882,808 tons from the ground, milling about 666,000 tons for the year.
Black Hills Bentonite Ten Sleep, Kaycee and Oshoto operations generated about 800,000 tons of clay.
Proprietor K.E. Tanner of Ten Sleep had a two-man work force at his mine, which produced 30,000 tons.
Uranium
This one-time Wyoming minerals kingpin is generating lots of exploration, research, investment and conversation in 2008, but in 2007 there still was just one producer in Wyoming. Power Resources reported 1,98 million tons of ore for the year, down slightly from the 2.04 million tons from 2006.
There were no surface uranium mining operations in Wyoming last year. Power Resources’s Smith Ranch/Highland mine employs underground in-situ leach mining techniques only.
The 104 workers on the Smith Ranch/Highland payroll were the only uranium mining jobs reported, but several other companies have work forces employed in reclamation work, including 12 at Cogema’s Irigaray Mine, four at the old Pathfinder Mines Shirley Basin operation, three apiece at Kennecott’s Sweetwater project and at the famed Lucky Mc Mine site in Fremont County, operated by Pathfinder Mines. Kennecott also had one worker on the job at the shuttered Big Eagle mine in Fremont County.
The state mine inspector’s report concerns itself only with active mining and mine site reclamation and does not reflect the hundreds of exploration and development companies working to start or resume uranium production in the next couple of years.
Sand and gravel
Dozens of independent operators contributed to a statewide total of 14,496,328 tons of reported and/gravel production for the year.
Some facilities are owned by larger entities, such as McMurry Ready Mix and Oftedal Construction in Casper and McGarvin Moberly Construction in Worland, but the majority of the 94 reporting operations are smaller, independently-owned businesses.
This segment of the minerals industry is one of the largest in terms of employment, with 1,177 reported primary jobs for 2007.
Other minerals
Also under the supervisory umbrella of the Wyoming State Inspector of Mines are the various decorative rocks, granite and limestone for construction, lignite, gypsum, clay mining and others.
Adcock’s annual report counted 578 workers employed by this industries, dispersed among 22 different operators.
The big quarry run by Meridian Granite near Cheyenne was the single-largest producer listed in the inspector’s report, with 2.8 million tons of product.
Safety scores
Inspector names safest mining operations of ’08
By Don Warfield
Staff Writer
State Inspector of Mines Terry Adcock has had a pleasing but difficult job over the past few years. He has been trying to determine which Wyoming mines have been the safest.
In his report for 2007, Adcock listed more than 100 mining companies and mining industry vendors that worked at least 10,000 man-hours during the year without a single lost-time accident, or LTA.
An LTA is recorded when an injured worker is unable to return to his or her normal assignment within 24 hours. They range from giant Antelope Coal Company with nearly 990,000 man-hours to tiny Evans Construction with 10,510 man-hours.
How to choose?
Adcock has implemented a scoring system that categorizes operations by size and type. Mines or vendors that work 500,000 man-hours or more per year are “large” operations, while “small” operations are those working 100,000 to 499,000 man-hours per year. The categories are further divided into surface and underground.
Beginning this year, based on 2007 performances, twelve awards will be given - first, second and third in each category and division.
The criteria are straightforward:
1. No operation can be eligible for any award if it has incurred a fatality.
2. Calculations are based on the mines’ lost-time accident rate - Number of LTAs X 200,000, divided by man-hours.
3. If more than one operation in a category has no lost-time accidents, the number of man-hours will determine award winners.
4. Operations that work over 10,000 hours with no LTAs will receive a certificate.
Winners of the Inspector of Mines Safety Awards for calendar year 2007 are:
Large Surface: First — Rio Tinto Energy America (Antelope Mine); second — Chevron Mining, Inc. (Kemmerer Mine); third — Buckskin Mining (Buckskin Mine).
Small Surface: First — P&H MinePro Services (vendor); second — Black Butte Coal Co. (Black Butte Mine); third — Mountain Cement Co. (vendor).
Large underground: First — Solvay Chemicals; second — OCI Wyoming, LP; third — General Chemical Soda Ash Partners.
Small underground: First — Rockwell Petroleum (Greybull); second — Rockwell Petroleum (Osage); third — Bridger Coal Company (Bridger underground mine).
Sadly, the Wyoming mining industry recorded one fatality and 144 LTAs in 2007. Mining is now one of the safest occupations in American industry, but the goal of Wyoming mining remains the elimination of all injuries in all operations.
Safety awards will be given June 20 during the Wyoming Mining Association’s annual convention at Jackson Lake Lodge.
