The mine is located near Colstrip, Montana. Overburden is removed exposing the Rosebud coal seam utilizing four draglines and is deposited in previously mined pit areas. The coal is loaded by front-end loaders into 100 ton and 200 ton haul trucks for transport to areas where the 2 coal is stockpiled. The coal seam averages 20 to 25 feet in thickness and overburden thicknesses vary from 20 feet to more than 200 feet.

Rosebud is a large operation with three active pits and supplies almost all of its current production to the four-unit 2,100 megawatt Colstrip Power Station that is adjacent to the mine and was specifically designed to burn Rosebud coal.

Number of Draglines Removing Overburden - 4.

The Rosebud Mine Area F expansion project is located 12 miles west of Colstrip, Montana, in Rosebud and Treasure counties. The Area F project would expand the Rosebud Mine, which currently is a 25,576-acre surface coal mine producing low-sulfur subbituminous coal.

The coal mining method proposed would be the same area strip mining method that currently uses in other permitted areas of the Rosebud Mine. In advance of each mining pass, soil would be removed from the area and stockpiled according to type for use later during reclamation. Next, the overburden (sedimentary rock material covering the coal seams) would be drilled and blasted. Overburden from the initial cut would be stockpiled as spoil. A dragline would then be used to strip the overburden from succeeding mine passes. Spoil would be cast into the mined-out pit created by the preceding pass. After the dragline exposes the coal seam in each pass, the coal would be drilled and blasted. A loading shovel, front-end loader, or backhoe would be used to load blasted coal into coal haulers.

The coal would be transported on an established haul road to permit Area C for crushing. From there, most of the coal would be sent via the existing 4.2-mile conveyor to the Colstrip Steam Electric Station.

Western Energy has shipped coal from the Rosebud Mine by rail, all coal currently produced by the mine is consumed locally at the Colstrip Power Plant and the Rosebud Power Plant.