GENERAL46187

• Permit No: C1996084
• IBM Index Class Name: General Documents
• Doc Date: 6/24/2002
• Doc Name: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING LORENCITO COAL MINE SUSPENDS OPERATIONS
• Permit Index Doc Type: GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
999
STATE OF COLORADO
DIVISION OF MINERALS AND GEOLOGY
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman St., Roam :15
Denver, Colorado A0203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
pEN1,E,e PosT 6/~y~~a
w •
I
EM~E
halts coal mining
DIVISION OF
MINERALS
GEOLOGY
RECLAMATION
MI NING•SAFETY
Bill Owens
Governor
Greg F. Walther
Executive Director
Ronald W. Canany
Acting Drvmon Director
ESTON -Lorencito Coal Co. has suspended
lung operations, citing a lack of national and
s to contracts.
he shutdown will affect 90 employees.
caner Erik Addington said Friday that he's
ful the suspension will last only two mont4ts
'le the company pursues several out-of-state
- 'ng contracts.
'If the curcent market doesn't improve, we'll be
s¢Ut down indefinitely;' Addington said.
~~-~ THE DENVER POST 5/27,OZ-
_Lorencito coal mine suspends operations
By Stere Raabe
Denver Post Business Writer
Southern Colorado's Lorencito
Coal Co. has suspended mining op-
erations indefinitely after losing a
major coal contract.
The shutdown leaves 40 employ-
ees without john.
a~ encito had been open only
`last September and had pro-
'~ up to L,000 tons of coal per
d its peak in March.
fa
~".
But mine manager Erik Adding-
ton said he made the decision to
shyt down last week after the mine
lost a major coal buyer, the Ten-
nesse~'Valley Authority.
"We Still have a nice reserve of
coil here, but if we can't ship it,
there's no use mining it," he said.
Addington said he is negotiating
new contracts with undisclosed
customers, aad he hopes to reopen
the mice by the end of July.
"It wasn't a question of us not
being able to mine enough coal as
it was that nobody seems to be buy-
ing it right now," Addington said.
"We just can't seem to get more
sales and can't make any money.
St's not feasible for us to continue
losing money."
The 18,000-acre mine is 16 miles
west of Trinidad.
Lorencito mines coal with high
thermal content and low amounts
of sulfur, making it especially suit- '
able for coal-fired power plants b
the eastern United States.
The coal burns too hot to be uset
in most Colorado power plants,
which are geared to use coal wEtl
lower thermal properties from Wy-
oming's Powder River Basin, Ad
1lington said.
Denver Post wire services cot- '
tributed to this report.