The mineralized zone in the FRO (Fording River Operation) properties contain bituminous grade coal seams with varying volatile matter contents. The Mist Mountain Formation contains over 13 economic coal seams (consisting of medium to high volatile bituminous coal) and is the most widely occurring formation on the Fording River property. The Mist Mountain Formation is approximately 500-metres (m) thick and consists of an interbedded sequence of sandstones, siltstones, silty shales, mudstones, and medium to high volatile bituminous coal seams, with the depth of burial ranging from surface exposures to greater than 1,500 m.

The quality of the coal seams in the Mist Mountain Formation varies with depth of burial and location along strike of the deposit. With standard coal processing to remove impurities, these seams will produce coking coal suitable for use in steel-making. The majority of coal products produced by FRO requires a blend of coal mined from two or more seams, and potentially of coal from different mining areas.

FRO uses the following categories to identify the different types of coals mined from the pits.
- Standard Coal: < 24.5% Volatile Matter (VM), includes Seams 010 – 090.
- Premium Coals: 26.5% to 28.5% VM, includes Seams 110 – 130.
- Eagle Coals: > 28.5% VM, includes Seams 140 and higher.

There are seams with VM content near 25%, which FRO blends into both Standard and Premium categories.

The Fording River mine is located 29 kilometres northeast of the community of Elkford, in southeastern British Columbia. The mine site consists of approximately 23,000 hectares of coal lands, including four operating surface coal pits along with several areas planned for surface mine development held under multiple contiguous coal leases and licences.

Coal mined at Fording River is primarily steelmaking coal, although lesser quantities of lower-grade hard coking coal are also produced.

Fording River’s reserve areas include Eagle Mountain, Swift, Turnbull and Castle Mountain and currently produces coal from the Eagle and Swift operating areas. Approximately half of the current production is derived from the Eagle Mountain pit area, with the other half produced from the Swift pit area.

FRO currently produces coal using open-pit coal mining methods, with primary waste stripping and coal mining completed by shovels and rear dump haul trucks.

Waste is blasted using large diameter blast-hole drills. The shot overburden/interburden is dumped into the waste haul trucks by electric shovels. Mine waste is backfilled into the advancing mining pit where practical and to external dumps as required to release adequate ROM coal to meet annual production targets. Front-end loaders and bulldozers are used to move coal to piles on the mined benches; coal haul trucks later haul coal to the breaker for delivery to the coal processing plant.

Castle Mountain has large reserves of economically mineable coal and it might be possible to create a mine with a high ratio of coal produced to disturbance area. Pre-construction can only begin after all permits and approvals have been received.

Two mining techniques are under consideration: open pit mining and along-strike mining.

Fording River Operation produces all products sized to -2 inches using standard coal processing methods of heavy media cyclones for coarse coal, and cyclones and froth flotation for fines processing.

ROM coal from pits and stockpiles passes through a rotary breaker and plant feeders. After sizing to 38 mm (1.5 inches), the raw coal is screened to 0.75 mm, with +0.75 mm coal feeding heavy medium cyclones, with the product screened to +0.5 mm, centrifuged and sent to the thermal dryer. Coal sized at -0.75 mm enters a fine coal circuit that includes water only cyclones, spirals, sieve bends, froth flotation cells, thickeners, centrifuges, and the thermal dryer. Coarse rejects are directed to a bin for loading into haul trucks. Spiral rejects are dewatered and sent with coarse rejects, with screen underflow reporting to tailings ponds. Flotation rejects are split for either thickening, filtering and disposal with coarse rejects, or directed to the tailings ponds.