Canadian Railroads > Tumbler Ridge Mines to be shuttered

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Coal+mine+closures+devastating+shock+Tumbler+Ridge+mayor/9740653/story.html

Can't bode well for CN. Anybody aware of how much work CN put into this line to reopen some years ago?

Don't think CN put much money into reopening the Tumbler sub. BC Rail left it in good condition, just another freebie for CN to ruin. Doug

Is this the mine which tried to import hundreds of Chinese coal miners?

Didn't go over well with the (unemployed) local coal miners, etc as I recall.

I would not blame CN for buying up public investment in a fire sale. It was cheap. It also was fair - it's a very risky investment.

The citizens of British Columbia wrote off C$4 billion in the overall Tumbler Ridge project (mines, railroads, etc.). It was perhaps the worst North American transportation infrastructure bet of the 20th Century, but only one of many bad bets made assuming there would be a large and stable Pacific Rim market for North American coal.

When China is booming, places like Tumbler Ridge can make a buck. When it slows down, they can't.

Best regards,

Rob L.

Does this mean that all mines are now closed on the Tumbler Sub.? There were two or three active out there, so I don't know if this closure means the closure of the CN line or if there is still a mine -- Teck, perhaps? -- shipping by rail from Tumbler Ridge.

- L.F.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/14 17:34 by loleta.

The one mine that is closing is actually the Brule Mine, not the Brazion Mine as it is called in the article. This means all three of Walter Energy's mines will be closed. However, there is still the Trend Mine owned by Anglo American. It is still operating, and I have not heard any plans to change that at this time. Teck is also in the process of reopening the Quintette mine, but that is likely a fair ways away at this point.

None of these mines are the one that was importing the Chinese workers for the construction of the new underground mine. That was the Murray River Mine, owned by HD Mining. The mine is still in the development stage, with decline construction scehduled to start in October of last year. So it will likely be some time until production is achieved. I'm actually not sure if the work was started, or if it's still held up in the legal process. Please don't read anything I have said as an endorsement of the Temporary Foreign Worker plan, as I do not support it in any way.

Thanks for the details, greasemonkey. So does the Trend mine ship by rail on the Tumbler Sub?

L.F.

thanks for the update, greasemonkey

I knew there was a mine which had intended to use foreign miners.

Yes, Trend does ship by rail. It's not a huge mine, only shipping around 1 to 1.5 million tons per year. Unit trains are loader with a wheel loader, as opposed to a conventional hopper/silo setup. Anglo was also supposed to be working on an expansion, which would open up a second mine to use the same prep plant. This would increase production to around 2.5 million tons per year. I'm not sure what became of that project though.

By the spring of 2003, well before the CN takeover in July 2004, BC Rail had lifted the track RR north of Mile 70.1 as far as Mile 82.0, near the point where the balloon track for the Quintette loadout began. I don't know if the balloon track was lifted.

Later, when Northern Energy and Mining Inc. began development of the Trend mine, it had to pay $8 million to have the track reinstated as far as Trend at Mile 80, and pay $4 million for a loop track. NEMI and another firm later sold the majority of their interest in the Trend mine to the current operator, Anglo-American.

The Wolverine mine that has just been shuttered was developed and originally operated by Western Canadian Coal Corp. It opened in 2006 and a new processing plant and loadout was built at trackside at about Mile 61.5. Anybody have the exact mileage?

Walter Energy acquired the Wolverine mine and two others when it bought out WCC in 2011. The other two are not on the Tumbler branch.

A condition of the CN takeover was that it would not lift any track on the branch south of Mile 70.1 for a minimum of five years. That was at a time when there were no operating mines on the branch, and the point soon became moot as a new operator began shipping from the Teck loadout (connected to the mainline at Mile 69.6) in December 2004, and then the Wolverine and Trend mines a few years later boosted traffic even more. With only the Trend mine left, the future of the branch is once again uncertain.

Just a little update, Teck has suspended it's redevelopment of the Quintette Mine due to poor markets for coal and poor prices.