The Murray River property is located within the Peace River Coalfield (PRC) in the eastern foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains of northeastern BC. The western margin of the Foothills belt is classified as the easternmost major thrust fault that emplaced Paleozoic strata over Mesozoic strata.

In the PRC there are two main coal-bearing units: the Gates Formation and the Gething Formation (British Columbia Geological Survey n.d.). Both Lower Cretaceous units were subjected to varying degrees of burial prior to the Laramide deformation and mountain-building episodes that took place approximately 40 to 70 million years ago when the Pacific and North American plates collided. The Laramide Orogeny increased the overall maturity of the coal seams. Based on drill core information from the neighbouring Quintette mine, coal seams of the Gates Formation can be comprised of up to 10 separate seams and the average cumulative thickness of the coal seams is as high as 17 metres.

The basal sequence of the Moosebar Formation is a dark grey to black marine shale with sideritic concretions, bentonite, and siltstone. The upper parts comprise banded or fissile sandy shale, very fine-grained sandstone, and sandstone intercalated shale. This transition is a pro-deltaic (highstand systems tract) transition from marine sediments to the massive continental sandstones that mark the overlying Gates Formation. The Bluesky Member is a chert pebble conglomerate that is found locally at the base of the Moosebar Formation.

The Gates Formation conformably overlies the Moosebar Formation. The lower portion of the formation is termed the Quintette or Torrens member and consists of massive, light gray, medium-grained sandstone, with minor carbonaceous and conglomeratic horizons. The Quintette member is overlain by several cyclical sequences of coal deposition that occur over a stratigraphic interval of approximately 80 m collectively referred to as the Middle Gates. Each cycle normally begins with laminated, medium- to fine-grained sandstone at the base, transitioning to carbonaceous shale and coal. Coal seams are thickest and more continuous in the lowermost cycle: the D through K seams are economical to mine. Individual coal seams within the higher cycles may coalesce to form a single seam, e.g., the G and I seams are typically referred to as the G/I seam.

The lower portion of the Upper Gates is massive, medium- to coarse-grained sandstone and overlain by a predominantly shale sequence containing two to three poorly developed coal seams (A - C) intercalated with sandy shale and very fine sandstone. A very thin bed of chert pebbles with ferruginous cement marks the contact of the Upper Gates with the overlying marine sediments of the Hulcross Formation.

As part of the Bulk Sample work currently underway, two accesses will be developed from surface to underground: one decline for coal haulage; and one shaft for transportation of personnel, materials and equipment, and ventilation. These two accesses will also form the main access and secondary egress for the full mine development. In addition, a second shaft for return air only will be constructed for the full mine.

Coal will be mined using longwall mining, a form of underground coal mining where coal is mined in large panels (typically 1 to 3 km long and 200 to 400 m wide). Longwall mining is designed to maximize extraction rates while maintaining worker safety. Based on current mine planning, the underground workings will roughly correspond to an aboveground footprint of 37 km2.

Three key pieces of mining equipment that will be used include road headers, shearers and hydraulic shields. Road headers will be used to establish the main tunnel systems and gate roads. The shearer operates at the longwall face and extracts the coal from the seam. Hydraulic shields provide a safe work environment for personnel along the face.

A system of conveyors will be used to transport the run of mine (ROM) coal from the longwall face to the decline and up to the surface. From the mining face, raw coal will be transported via conveyors through the underground workings to the decline, up the decline to the surface on the west side of Murray River, then on an overland conveyor across Murray River to a coal preparation plant located on the east side of the river. Clean coal produced in the plant will be conveyed to a rail loadout facility and then transported by rail to the port at Prince Rupert, BC.

Raw coal will enter the CPP, be crushed, and then flow through a series of sizing processes, including: vibrating screens, heavy media cyclones, teetered-bed separator, flotation cells, centrifuges, and press filters. Four streams of material will be produced through the CPP:
1. Clean coal will be transported to the clean coal storage area, and will then be directed to the rail loadout.
2. Middling coal will be transported to the middling storage area, and will then be directed to the rail loadout.
3. Flotation clean coal will be temporarily stored at the flotation clean coal storage. This material will be dried – by evaporation during the summer, and via a drying plant during the winter months – then directed to the clean coal storage area.
4. Rejects – two streams of rejects will be generated (coarse and fine); they will be commingled and conveyed to the coal rejects pile and stockpiled.

Raw coal and clean coal stockpiles will be designed with a 3-day turnover time under full 6 Mtpa operation.