Overview

Mine Type	Underground
Status	Temporary Suspension
Commodities	Coal (metallurgical)
Mining Method	Room-and-pillar Continuous
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Donkin Coal Mine is the only operating subsea coal mine in the world and Nova Scotia’s only operating underground coal mine. Donkin mine had been on care and maintenance between Q1 2020 and Q3 2022. In September 2022, regulatory approval was received from the Nova Scotia provincial government to reopen the Donkin mine, and production at the mine resumed. In July 2023, Nova Scotia's provincial regulator issued a Stop Work Order (SWO) to Donkin in response to the roof fall into one of Donkin's two 3.5-km long access tunnels. In December 2023, the provincial regulator for the Mine lifted the SWO to Donkin mine. A return to production is not expected in the near future. Production data for 2022 and 2023 years are not publicly available.

Deposit type

• Sedimentary

Summary:

The Donkin Coal Project area occurs within the Sydney Coalfield of Nova Scotia, a large coal basin of Carboniferous age that extends north and northeast from the northern part of Cape Breton Island under the Atlantic Ocean towards Newfoundland.

Up to 11 coal seams are recognized in the Donkin area, and three of those may have potential for eventual underground extraction: Lloyd Cove, Hub and Harbour seams (in descending stratigraphic order).

All coal resources reported within the Donkin Lease fall within the underground category. There are no resources suitable for surface mining. Coal resources that are deeper than 700 m rock cover are present at Donkin and would be classified as nonconventional at this stage. Non-conventional resources have not been included in this resource statement. Sterilized resources are those that are unavailable for mining due to environmental or other restrictions. At Donkin, coal within 75 m of an offshore drill hole that intersects the coal seam in question is unable to be mined. For a 2-m thick seam, this equates to approximately 50,000 tonnes of coal. For the three potentially mineable seams, Lloyd Cove, Hub and Harbour, approximately 1.3 million tonnes (Mt) of coal would be sterilized by this legislative requirement. In addition, seams under less than 200 m of solid rock cover were not considered for longwall mining. An estimate of in-situ resources of coal in the three seams where the rock cover is between 100-m and 200-m thick is included in the Inferred category in this report. Bord-and-pillar mining may be possible in parts of these areas, as it has in other submarine mines in the Sydney Coalfield. No resources were estimated for coal under less than 100 m cover.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Processing

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Production

Commodity	Units	2020	2019	2018	2017
Coal (metallurgical)	Mt	....	0.5	0.5	0.2

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Mar 28, 2024
.......................	.......................		Mar 28, 2024
.......................	.......................		Mar 28, 2024

Total Workforce	Year
......	2022
......	2019
......	2018
......	2017