The general stratigraphic sequence of the Project area, beginning with the oldest sediments is: Rundle Group, Rocky Mountain Group, Spray River Formation, Fernie Formation, the Kootenay Group and the Blairmore Group [Samuelson 1996].

The Kootenay Group strata, which contain all of the coal seams, consist of the Morrissey Formation, the Mist Mountain Formation and the Elk Formation [Gibson 1979a]. While the entire Kootenay Group has some coal seams within it, technically all the economic seams occur in the Mist Mountain Formation. The Moose Mountain Member of the Morrissey Formation and the Elk Formation lie respectively under and over the main coal-bearing Mist Mountain formation. The Moose Mountain Member is a resistant, generally cliff-forming unit comprised of massive, medium to coarse-grained, medium-gray weathering sandstone. There are commonly two coal horizons within this sandstone, but their small thickness (rarely over one metre) and the overlying massive sandstone make them unattractive for economic consideration. The distinctive nature and prominence of this unit makes it an easily traceable marker horizon throughout the Elk Valley Coalfield of southeastern BC.

The Mist Mountain Formation is the main coal-bearing unit of the Kootenay Group. It overlies the Moose Mountain Member with an abrupt but conformable contact. It is comprised of a generally recessive, interbedded sequence of brownish tinted sandstones, gray to brown siltstones, gray and black shales, gray mudstones and coal seams. In the Elk Coalfield this formation ranges in thickness between 400 and 660 m. The coal seams attain a maximum individual thickness of over 10 m and a lateral extent of several km.

The Elk Formation lies conformably but abruptly over the Mist Mountain Formation. It consists of an interbedded sequence of cliff-forming sandstones, shales and siltstones and thin (less than 1 m), sporadic coal seams.

Burnt Ridge North lies on the west limb of the Alexander Creek Syncline. The strike of the bedding is roughly north-northwest with the dips on the west side of the ridge ranging between 30 and 50 degrees to the east. The dips steepen to the east so that on the east side of the ridge the dips range from 45 degrees to vertical. It appears that initially the beds steepen with depth before flattening to the east into the axis of the Alexander Creek Syncline.

While the major structure of the area is the Alexander Creek syncline, mapping in the area indicates that a myriad of secondary structures have been superimposed on the west limb of the syncline. Folded and faulted areas have been mapped along the east side of Burnt Ridge. These areas are characterized by drag folds in anticline/syncline pairs, minor faulting, crushed and sheared zones and overturned bedding.

There are seven major coal seams occurring in the section ranging from thickness of 1 to 22 m.

The Project is located within the East Kootenay region in the southeastern portion of BC. The Project area is located in the Dry Creek and Grace Creek drainage basins, both tributaries to the Fording River. This area forms part of the Front Ranges of the Canadian Rockies, with elevations reaching over 2,550 metres (m) above sea level.

Line Creek supplies steelmaking and PCI coal to a variety of international and domestic customers. The Line Creek property consists of approximately 8,200 hectares of coal lands.

The LCO Phase II Dry Creek operating area includes the development of two open pit mining areas at LCO: Burnt Ridge North and Mount Michael.

Conventional open-pit truck and shovel mining method is employed to extracting coal and waste material.

Following mining, the coal is washed in coal preparation plants using a variety of conventional techniques and conveyed to coal or gas fired dryers for drying. Processed coal is conveyed to clean coal silos or other storage facilities for storage and load-out to railcars.