Eagle Butte Mine

The Eagle Butte mine is a coal mine located 7 mi north of Gillette, Wyoming in the United States in the coal-rich Powder River Basin. The mine is an open pit, "truck and shovel", mine producing a low-sulfur, sub-bituminous coal from the Roland and Smith seams that is used for domestic energy generation. Coal produced by the mine is shipped to its customers via railroad. The mine is owned and operated by Eagle Specialty Materials LLC after being acquired from Blackjewel LLC in 2019.

As of 2009, Eagle Butte had reserves of 471000000 ST of sub-bituminous coal and a maximum permitted production capacity of 35000000 ST per year. Typical annual production has been in 20-25 million ton range for the last several years though. The average quality of the coal shipped from Eagle Butte is 8,400 BTU/lb, 0.34% Sulfur, 4.50% Ash, and 1.90% Sodium (of the ash). Train loading operations at the mine are done with a batch weigh bin system that is coupled to a "weigh-in-motion" track scale system. Silo capacity at the mine's rail loop, which can accommodate up to 5 unit trains, is 48,000 tons. In 2008, the mine produced just over 20500000 ST of coal, making it the 9th-largest producer of coal in the United States. In 2022, this had dropped to just over 15 million short tons of coal. However, this still made it the 5th-largest coal mine in the US.

History


The Eagle Butte Mine shipped its first train of coal in 1978 after beginning pre-production work in 1976. Since mining operations began, the mine has shipped over 521000000 ST of coal to its customers. Eagle Butte mine has changed hands many times through mergers and sales. Previous owners include AMAX, Cyprus AMAX, RAG and Foundation Coal.

In 2005, the Eagle Butte mine was awarded two awards from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality for Excellence in Surface Mining Reclamation and Innovation. Eagle Butte was selected to receive these awards because of the superior quality of shrub patches that the mine had established on its reclamation.

On July 1, 2019 CEO Jeffery Hoop announced that Blackjewel LLC, the operator of Eagle Butte had filed for bankruptcy and closed the mine. According to the Casper Star-Tribune, court documents show that Blackjewel owes $500 million in liabilities, including $6 million to employees. This was after Blackjewel was denied $20 million in financing by the United Bank of West Virginia.

On August 4, 2019 Contura Energy Inc. announced that they won the bid to purchase the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines from Blackjewel. However, it was unclear if and when any of the mines would reopen. On October 21, 2019 Eagle Specialty Materials put out an announcement that it had closed its deal to buy the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines from Contura, after the latter was unable to come to an agreement with the federal government about unpaid royalties needed to close the previous deal.