The Estevan Mine covers an area of 20,331 Ha. and is located in South Eastern Saskatchewan between the City of Estevan and the Town of Bienfait. The Estevan Mine operates four active pits and supplies lignite coal to the Boundary Dam Generating Station (4 Units), the Shand Generating Station (1 Units), the Activated Carbon Plant, the Char Plant, as well as some Domestic Sales. The Generating Stations are owned and operated by Saskatchewan Power Corporation.
Coal is uncovered using the six draglines (1 – BE 2570W, 1 – BE 1570W, 1 – P&H1920, 1 – Marion 8750, 1 – P&H 2355). The exposed coal is hauled from the pits directly to the generating station. Current annual production of the mine is 6.0 million tonnes. The current coal supply contracts to the Generating Stations for the Mines expire in 2024.
The Estevan mine combines the Bienfait mine and the adjacent Boundary Dam mine.
The Boundary Dam Mine is an approved coal mine located in southeastern Saskatchewan, approximately 10 km south of the City of Estevan.
The mining method that employed is open pit strip mining. The sequence begins with the soils salvage in advance of mining. The overburden is then removed to expose the underlying coal seams and placed in the adjacent pit. The coal is removed and the subsequent open pit is backfilled with the overburden from the next open cut. Spoil piles are then recontoured and the salvaged cover soils are replaced on the recontoured spoil p ........
