Summary:
The Quintette Mine is divided into two areas known as Quintette Legacy and Quintette Restart. Quintette Legacyis part of the historical mining operations of Mesa Wolverine. Mining operations at Quintette Restart, which covers the resource for the Mount Babcock area, commenced on 05 September 2024.
The Mount Babcock deposit covers approximately 1,500 ha at the top of Mount Babcock, with the Gates Formation cropping out on the northwest side of the mountain. The primary structure is a broad, box-like anticline that plunges up to 10° to the southeast. The bulk of the mineable coal occurs in the gently dipping, un-faulted area between the bounding anticlines of the box fold (Sharman, 2015). The southwestern limb steepens on the southwest side of the anticline, with dips reaching 60°.
There are several fault systems in the area that strike northwest-southeast and dip to the southwest (Sharman, 2015). The faults have reverse displacement and repeat the seams and surrounding strata. The most prominent of these is the Northeast fault system. The northeast fault system is composed of a main fault and several splays located to the northeast of the main fault. Between the splays of the fault system and northeast of it, bedding dips are steeper, up to 50° in slope. To the southwest, bedding dips are gentle, up to only 10°.
Other faults in the Babcock coal deposit occur on the southwest limb of the broad, box-shaped culmination of the Babcock anticline and do not have significant dip changes associated with them. The area immediately on either side of the faults is often a damage zone of fractured rock and minor folding, which may form preferential pathways for groundwater circulation.
Steep dips and faulting on the northeast side of the Mount Babcock form the limit of mining activity to the northeast, while the increasing depth of cover near the top of the mountain forms the limit of mining activity to the southwest due to high strip ratios.
In the Window Pit area, on the northeast side of Mount Babcock, a thick (locally over 100 m deep) pocket of unconsolidated glacial drift (Teck, 2012) covers the Gates Formation bedrock at the crest of the anticline.
Based on the above discussion, the Babcock coal deposit is classified as a complex geology type.
The Babcock coal deposit is classified as a surface mineable deposit type.
Mineralization
The exploration activities identified nine coal seams on the property. The seams are named (from top to base) A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, and K. The seams from A to G are typically present as single ply seams, while seams E, J and K are often split and occur as multi-ply seams.
The continuity of the Mount Babcock coal beds has been confirmed by numerous boreholes, bulk samples from adits and production faces, and coal production data from the previous open pit mining of the Windy Pit area.
The nine coal beds demonstrate lateral continuity, with cumulative thicknesses ranging from 15 m to 17 m. Seams A, B, and C rarely reach minable thicknesses. However, the six main coal seams that are thick enough for open-pit mining are Seams D, E, F, G, J, and K1/K2.
Mount Babcock Area - Coal Bed True Thickness and Raw Ash
Coal bed D
Average true thickness: 2.46 m
Average raw ash (adb): 21.47 %
Coal bed E
Average true thickness: 2.62 m
Average raw ash (adb): 30.14 %
Coal bed F
Average true thickness: 2.39 m
Average raw ash (adb): 18.20 %
Coal bed G
Average true thickness: 1.96 m
Average raw ash (adb): 23.68 %
Coal bed J
Average true thickness: 4.99 m
Average raw ash (adb): 19.59 %
Coal bed K1
Average true thickness: 0.82 m
Average raw ash (adb): 19.40 %
Coal bed K2
Average true thickness: 1.10 m
Average raw ash (adb): 26.83 %
The coal seams in the proposed pits are suitable to produce metallurgical coal used to make steel (Teck, 2012). This type of coal was produced between 1997 and 2000 and in 2013 from the Windy Pit, which is located on the northwest side of the proposed development.
Commodity Production
First shipment of coal in more than 20 years left the mine on September 18, 2024.
Production for 2024 is a forecast calculated based on quarters 1-3 of 2024, respectively.
| Commodity | Units | 2024 |
|
Coal (metallurgical)
|
Mt
| ....  |
All production numbers are expressed as clean coal.