The coal deposits of the GHO are typical of those found within the Canadian Inner Foothills and Rocky Mountain areas, and have been subjected to a relatively high tectonic deformation. Exploration programs that use this setting are considered applicable to the Project area.

The GHO are located within the Elk Valley Coalfields. The coal measures are situated within the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous

Kootenay Group sediments. From earliest to latest, the Kootenay Group includes:
- Morrissey Formation: sandstones; subdivided into the Weary Ridge and Moose Mountain Members; 20–80 m in thickness;
- Mist Mountain Formation: interbedded sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, shale and thin to thick seams of bituminous to semi-anthracite coal; 450–550 m in thickness;
- Elk Formation: interbedded sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, shale and locally thick beds of chert-pebble conglomerate and thin seams of high volatile bituminous coal; 350–450 m in thickness.

The Mist Mountain Formation contains approximately 25 coal seams of potential economic interest, consisting of medium to high volatile bituminous coal.

Within the coal measures, there are three structurally-separated coalfields, the Elk Valley, Crowsnest, and Flathead coalfields. The Elk Valley coalfield is located within the Alexander Creek and Greenhills synclines, which are separated by a normal fault. The western edge of the Mist Mountain Formation, and therefore the distribution of the Elk Valley coalfield, is controlled by the Bourgeau Fault. To the east of this fault, the Greenhills syncline plunges to the north, and its eastern limb is truncated by the northtrending normal Erickson fault. East of the Erickson fault is the Alexander Creek syncline, which is in turn cut by the Ewin Pass thrust fault (Ryan, 2001).

The coal seams in both synclines are typically fragmented and sheared. Thicker seams are generally lower in the section, tend to host major thrusts, and therefore are frequently extensively sheared (Ryan, 2001).

Greenhills Syncline
The east limb of the asymmetric Greenhills syncline dips westerly at 15–25°, except in areas near the Erickson Fault, where 45–55° dips are common. The west limb exhibits much steeper dips, commonly in the 35–45° range. The Greenhills Syncline plunges northward (340–350°), at less than 5°, and then thins out and seems to end to the north in the area of the Osborne Creek Depression (Teck Coal, 2011).

Erickson Fault
The Erickson Fault, which locally runs along the base of the Greenhills Range, west of the Fording River, is one of the major regional faults. From south to north, this westerly dipping (40–70°) normal fault brings Mist Mountain strata progressively into contact with Rundle, Rock Mountain, Spray River, Fernie and Morrissey strata. The downthrown block is to the west (Teck Coal, 2011). Near the south end of Lake Mountain, the Erickson Faults begins to “splay” into two zones. The main fault runs along the eastern margin of Lake Mountain, and the subsidiary fault runs to the west and appears to thin out and end northward. The steep northward dip exhibited in the Lake Mountain strata could be due to influence from these flanking “splays” of the fault. The flat-lying region to the north of Lake Mountain (Osborne Creek Depression area) is completely void of outcrop, and the Erickson Fault has not been traced either through or to the north of this area (Teck Coal, 2011).

Mineralization
The Mist Mountain Formation depth of burial ranges from surface exposures to greater than 1,500 m. The coal measures on the GHO property contain bituminous grade coal seams with varying volatile matter contents. The coal quality varies with depth of burial and location along the strike of the deposit. Seams may range in thickness from 1–16 m.

The mining operations use conventional truck-and-shovel methods. As a result of delivery requirements and varying coal seam qualities it is necessary to have multiple coal seams exposed at any time.

GHO currently produces coal from two active pit phases (Cougar Phases 4 and 7) using open-pit coal mining methods, with primary waste stripping and coal mining completed by shovels and rear dump haul trucks. An additional three phases (Cougar Phases 8, and 9, and Swift (GHO)) are planned.

Geotechnical Considerations
The Cougar Phases 4–6 pit designs typically use bench heights of 15 m with a 65º face angle. The wall is typically double-benched, with 10 m wide safety benches, resulting in an overall wall angle of 51º. Where walls come into contact with rehandle, a 10 m berm is left, and the rehandle is sloped up at 37º. Spoils are built with a swell factor of 1.3, and inter-bench angles that vary from 20–37º, depending on configuration and reclamation requirements.

For the Cougar Phases 7–9 pit designs, the selected design shell was a 40º overall highwall angle, with a 65º inter-bench angle. The choice of angle was based upon the height of the highwall and geotechnical guidance for rock mass failures of highwalls at these heights.

Pit walls and spoils are monitored with a combination of prisms, GPS units, radar, wireline monitors, and piezometers. These systems are linked to near real time data collection and analysis software that has the capability to sound an alarm when thresholds have been exceeded.

Blasting and Explosives
Drilling is currently done with electric drills that use 311 mm diameter bits. Holes are drilled vertically. Normally, drilling is designed to blast one bench (15 m) at a time.

Drilling is completed with offset patterns from bench to bench so that there is no potential to drill into previous bench bootlegs that may exist. Coal seam locations are determined as the machine drills each hole. This information is used to design explosive charges for each hole.

Hole spacing and burden dimensions are designed to provide the necessary explosive energy to break the rock sufficiently so that it can be dug productively and at the same time minimize coal seam disturbance.

A pattern consists of a block of multiple holes. Once a pattern is drilled and the holes have been primed and loaded with explosive it is tied in and shot. The tie-in incorporates delays that provide progressive relief for the rock to break into as the rows of holes detonate. This provides better fragmentation, waste pile looseness, reduced coal seam disturbance and reduced fly rock.

Explosives are ammonium-nitrate based. Anfo products are used in dry holes and Heavy Anfo products consisting of blends of Anfo and emulsion are loaded where water resistance is needed.

Blasting operations are carefully planned to provide blasted waste for the mining fleet in a timely fashion.

- subscription is required.

The basic operation of a coal processing plant is separation by gravity for the coarser particles . Based on the difference in specific gravity of coal and rock, the coal can be separated to a desired specification. To assist gravity separation, mechanical means are also used. At GHO, this is accomplished through vibrating screens, cyclones, and spirals. Flotation is used to recover the fine coal particles. Each technique contributes to the recovery of clean coal from the raw coal feed.

Wash Plant
GHO has two raw coal silos which can hold up to 1,800 t each. The silos are used to store the raw coal before it is processed in the plant.

Deslime screens are large vibrating screens used to split the coal feed into different sizes. Material >1.0 mm reports to the coarse circuit. Material <1.0 mm reports to the fines circuit.

Heavy media cyclones are used to separate coarse rock from coarse coal. Coarse coal goes out the top, while coarse rock goes out ........