just came across this article online, thought you CPL holders might appreciate it. I must say that the quality of discussion & analysis here leaves the CCC threads for dead.
Best of luck all CPL holders :)
international demand for local coal
By ERIC PLUMMER
Posted 2 days ago
China’s need for coal continues to soar, offering encouraging news for Coalspur’s Vista Coal Mine Project near Hinton.
Expected to open operations in 2015, the coal extracted from the local mine will be exported to countries on the Pacific Rim, especially Japan, Korea and China. Figures announced in late February from China indicate a rapidly growing international market for the local product.
China’s National Bureau of statistics stated on Feb. 22 that the country’s total energy consumption rose by seven per cent last year. Coal fuels about 70 per cent of China’s electricity, and the populated country’s coal use increased a sharp 9.7 per cent in 2011 to 3.36 billion tonnes. This is more than three times as much coal burned by the United States last year, or nearly half of the coal consumed in the world.
The China Electricity Council predicts the country’s demand for coal to reach 3.9 billion tonnes by 2015 – the same time that phase one of mining is scheduled to begin at the Vista site 10 kilometres south of Hinton. China currently mines 95 per cent of the coal it uses, but shortages in supply are expected.
Allan McGowan, vice president of Coalspur’s Vista project, said that the viability of the local development is based on international coal prices that come out of the world’s largest producer of thermal coal, Australia.
“We see the cyclical business of coal export still on the rise for a considerable time going forward,” he said. “[Vista’s] economics are based as an export mine because that is really what is the driving force right now.”
The Vista project looks to be the climax of a century of coal mining in the Hinton area. It will become the largest mine in Canada, producing up to 12 million tonnes annually over the projects 30-plus years of potential future activity. Transported by CN Rail, Vista coal will reach a port in Prince Rupert, B.C. for seaway export to Pacific Rim destinations.
“The marketplace is ready for that type of tonnage,” McGowan said.
According to Vista’s vice president, Canada currently only exports eight per cent of the coal consumed worldwide, but the Prince Rupert port will provide a geographical advantage to large Pacific customers over the world’s top coal producer.
“We are fortunate enough to be closer to those markets than Australia distance-wise,” McGowan said.
A report released by Coalspur at the end of February states that exported seaborne thermal coal for power generation had grown 10 per cent annually since the late 1970s. The recent report also cited a prediction from research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie expecting annual coal exports by water to exceed one billion tonnes by 2020. By this time the Vista mine will be in its second phase of operations, employing 900 people.
Construction on the Vista project hinges on an Environmental Impact Assessment to be conducted by the Energy Resources Conservation Board. Coalspur is currently preparing for this assessment, and will be submitting an application to the ERCB on April 23, and mining company doesn’t expect a decision until March next year. The ERCB’s assessment considers the mine’s impact on nearby water sources, potential risks to fish and wildlife, possible dust that could be generated by the project, effects on transportation routes around the mine, as well as any other possible concerns of residents in the area.
McGowan said that the project is coming into next month’s ERCB review led by a team of executives with many years of experience taking environmental considerations in account.
“Some of us have done this before, and we know what the ERCB are looking for and we’re trying to put the answers and responses there without having to go through a process of redoing it,” he said. “We’re spending an inordinate amount of time with people such as trappers, the fish and game club, the residents of the municipality, the highways department and SRD [Alberta Sustainable Resource Development]. This is daily process that we go through and we won’t be finished until the end of this month.”
While waiting for the ERCB ruling, Coalspur can work on upgrading two logging roads in collaboration with West Fraser Timber, as well as locating deposits of gravel to be used in the mine and its roads.
“There’s a considerable amount of gravel that’s required,” McGowan said. “We’ll need gravel throughout the entire life of the mine.”
http://m.hintonparklander.ca/articledisplay.aspx?e=3495417
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