Conuma Coal Resources Ltd expects to produce around 4 million st of metallurgical/PCI coal in 2017 at three surface mines in the Tumbler Ridge area of northeastern British Columbia, including the idled Willow Creek mine currently scheduled for a July restart, the company's president, Mark Bartkoski, said Monday.
Since last fall, the company, a subsidiary of West Virginia-based ERP Compliant Fuels, has restarted the Brule and Wolverine mines acquired last year from Walter Canada. Willow Creek is the third mine in that purchase.
"Productivity is doing very well," Bartkoski said in an interview. "We have very high expectations [for] our people."
Brule is targeted to produce about 2.4 million st and Wolverine about 1.3 million st in 2017, according to Bartkoski. Willow Creek is projected to be around a 700,000 st/year mine, although Bartkoski expects the mine to turn out only about 300,000 st in 2017.
"If the market remains pretty solid, then we hope to bring Willow Creek into operation in July," he said.
Bartkoski said Conuma is attempting to build an operation in the western Canadian province that can prosper in both market ups and downs.
"What we're doing with the market up a little bit is we're taking the opportunity to pay down some of the debt, which we didn't have very much," he said. "We're also tackling many efficiency projects and equipment upgrades."
One of them involves the installation of a crusher system at Brule. "We're crushing all of the coal before we haul it, and that will allow us to get more payload on the trucks and help with the sampling system," he said.
Conuma's coal is being shipped to Asian markets through the Ridley Terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
By early May, Conuma expects to have about 460 employees at Brule and Wolverine. Eventually, Willow Creek will have about 220 employees, increasing Conuma's total miner payroll to nearly 700.
