Western Coal Re-opens Willow Creek Mine

The mine’s current permit supports a production rate of up to 900,000 mtpy of high quality metallurgical coal, with applications under way to increase production by late 2011 to 1.7 million mtpy over a 13 year life. As part of the expansion, it is planned to increase the throughput capacity to the processing plant and rail load-out facility to handle more than 3.7 million mtpy of coal. The newly expanded facilities will process coal from both the Willow Creek mine and the nearby Brule mine, eliminating the need to construct a plant and load-out facility for Brule.