NO PROFIT IN KAIPAROWITS MINE
A
company trying to open a coal mine on southern Utah’s Kaiparowits
Plateau had better take a second look at its numbers, concludes a
recent study by the Grand Canyon Trust. The report says the high
cost of trucking coal over 225 miles of roads to rail transfer
sites will cost an extra $5 per ton compared to other Utah mines.
Andalex Resources Inc. plans to mine 100 million to 120 million
tons of coal at its Smoky Hollow mine, including coal underneath
two wilderness study areas (HCN, 7/25/94). Citizens living in
several towns along the proposed truck route have already protested
plans to send double-trailer trucks down the roads at a rate of one
every five minutes, for 40 years. The draft environmental impact
statement will be available for public comment from the Bureau of
Land Management in May 1996, with a final decision expected at the
end of next year.
For a copy of the trust’s
study, Marketability of Coal from Andalex Resources’ Proposed Smoky
Hollow Coal Mine, contact Eric Howard at the Grand Canyon Trust,
Rt. 4, Box 718, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (520/774-7488).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline No profit in Kaiparowits Mine.
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