May 10--SUTTON -- By Rindi White, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Crunching through slushy snow breaking down in the 60-degree spring sunshine, Bruce Buzby of the state Department of Natural Resources explained how Idaho company Knoll Acres plans to "re-mine" the waste left behind at the Jonesville Mine by previous coal companies.
Knoll Acres, operating the site as Sutton Partners, plans to crush the waste,
or tailings, and harvest the glossy, black bituminous coal.
"It's not any secret that Jonesville coal, by nature, is a relatively
high-Btu, low-sulfur coal," said Brooks Potter, spokesman for Knoll Acres
and Sutton Partners. One British thermal unit, or Btu, is the amount of heat
necessary to increase the temperature of one pound of water by one degree
Fahrenheit.
The mine is in a bowl-shaped valley, which is cut in half by a striated and
rocky slice of land called Wishbone Hill.
The high-Btu coal at the mine is rare for Alaska, although mines in Indonesia
and Australia harvest similar-quality coal stores. Potter said the current
energy market, with its high fuel and natural gas prices, makes it a perfect
time to get cleaner-burning coal to market.
An April index of coal prices from Barlow Jonker, an Australian firm, lists
coal of similar quality to that found at Wishbone Hill at $51.15 per metric ton.
Two years ago, the same index listed that coal at $24 per metric ton.
But shipping prices have nearly doubled in the same time frame, going from
$11.15 to $20.50 per metric ton for a shipment from South Africa to the
Netherlands.
If they succeed at recycling the coal, it'll be a first in the state.
"It's never been done in Alaska, but it has been done in other locations
around the country," Buzby said. "It's typically done adjacent to
mining sites."
Knoll Acres is new to the coal-mining scene and to the state. It is
developing oil and gas interests in Alaska, Potter said, and is active Outside
as well.
"We are running a broadly diversified investment," Potter said,
ticking off real estate, oil and gas development, trucking and geothermal
activities as the company's primary interests.
"We're a very closely held, private company," he said.
Sutton Partners' coal-mining permit being considered by the Department of
Natural Resources includes plans to reopen the underground mine. Potter said
there are several hurdles to cross before underground mining could begin, if it
begins at all.
"There's a great deal of exploration that still needs to be done to
ascertain if the development is even feasible," Potter said. "This is
not a gigantic operation. We're not going to have a thousand people out there.
We might have 20."
The company would ship coal for overseas contracts through Port MacKenzie,
Potter said. But overseas contracts aren't on the table yet.
Sutton Partners applied last June to extend a mining permit on more than
1,400 acres north of Sutton at the Jonesville coal mine. The company purchased
the permit last year from Nerox Power Systems.
The state Division of Mining, Land and Water just completed its review of the
half-dozen comments received on the mining proposal, and Buzby said he expects
the office will issue a preliminary decision on the mining permit this week.
When the preliminary decision is issued, a second round of public comments will
begin.
If no significant issues come up, Buzby said, Sutton Partners could begin
operating in June.
Although this is the company's first re-mining effort, Potter said mining
technology has developed in the past several decades to make the recycling
process easier. In Alaska, he said, cold weather is the company's primary
concern.
"The only special consideration, really, is the severe winter,"
Potter said.
Re-mining the coal involves crushing and washing the tailings to separate the
coal. Groundwater that pours out of a culvert near an old mine portal in
Wishbone Hill through existing metal piping at an average of 400 gallons each
minute would wash the tailings.
That water is now diverted to a holding pond, where it percolates through the
soil. When a hard freeze sets in, the groundwater will stop flowing and the
company would have to suspend operations.
Cold weather isn't the only concern.
A recent inspection by Buzby was punctuated by gunshots from two men out for
midmorning target practice at the barren lot at the mine's entry. Shooters,
off-road vehicle users and people who torch cars and riddle them with bullet
holes frequent the area, especially on weekends. Having a company working on
site, Buzby said, would likely cut down on trespassing and other illegal
activities in the area.
Potter said vandals have done tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to
equipment and property there. When work starts, he said, people would be
stationed on site around the clock. It's a delicate balance between protecting
their property and barring access by the community, he said.
"From a technical point of view, we own the lease and could fence the
entire property if we want. But we've tried to be flexible. We understand
there's been public use on this property," Potter said. "We're outdoor
recreation people ourselves, and there's a lot of history there. ... We've just
tried to be flexible."
Sutton resident and Mat-Su Assemblywoman Lynne Woods said her community
supports Knoll Acres' re-mining attempt -- more so since company officials met
with the community last month to discuss their plans.
"If they can get some coal out of there and ship it across our port,
that's great," Woods said. "We'd ask them to consider local hire, of
course."
HISTORY: Wishbone Hill and the Jonesville Mine, the most successful mine at
the site, date back to the early 1900s.
Evan Jones and several partners leased and operated a mine privately in the
Jonesville area in 1920, around the same time the U.S. government mined coal in
the Chickaloon and Sutton area to provide fuel for the U.S.
Navy's Pacific fleet. Jones developed the Jonesville Mine, although it is not
named after him, into the state's largest coal mine.
A railroad was built to the Matanuska coal field in the 1920s, with a spur
connecting to Jones' mine in 1921. About 5,000 tons of coal were washed at the
Sutton Coal Washery before the washery was dismantled a year later when the
government began pulling out of the project. Jones sold his interest in the mine
in 1925 and moved with his wife and daughter to Seattle. They later returned to
Alaska, and Jones operated or managed mines all around the state.
By 1937, another mining company had reopened the mine. An explosion that year
killed 14 men and halted production for several years. In the 1950s, surface
mining took priority, and underground mining ceased altogether in 1959. Most of
the mining in the Matanuska coal field had stopped by 1968. After Placer Dome
U.S. bought the mine lease in 1986, Hobbs Industries took over mining operations
until 1996, when mining operations again ceased.
-- Source: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and Dan
Renshaw, mining consultant and engineer
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story first appeared in Wednesday's
Mat-Su section, which is distributed weekly in Mat-Su.
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