The Caballo Mine, located in Campbell County about 20 miles southeast of Gillette, Wyo., amid rolling uplands that support ranching and wildlife, as well as dry-land farming, began production in 1978. The mine shipped 23.3 million tons of coal in 2009 and controls about 845 million tons of reserves that are recoverable by surface mining methods. Coal is mined from the Smith and Wyodak-Anderson seams and averages about 68 feet in thickness; overburden is about 230-feet thick.

 

The mine operates on a seven-day-per-week schedule with two 12-hour shifts daily. Caballo, one of the nation's safest mines, has a workforce of approximately 430. The mine annually injects approximately $22 million into the regional economy in wages and benefits. Its coal is delivered to approximately 14 coal-based utilities located throughout the central United States.

 

Three shovels are operated to remove overburden, and large end-dumps are used for haulage. Coal is loaded with shovels and hauled to a hopper by end-dump trucks, where it is crushed and handled at a capacity up to 6,000 tons per hour. Crushed coal is transported to four storage silos by way of a 60-inch conveyor belt.

 

Three inbound and two outbound tracks are in place connecting with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads. The train loading facilities are located over the loop tracks and are capable of handling unit trains carrying up to 135 cars. Trains are loaded using a flood loading stage in conjunction with a batch weigh topping system. Typical loading times average two hours per train, and Caballo is capable of loading up to nine trains daily.

 

Caballo Mine is a Peabody Energy operation. Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company and a global leader in clean coal solutions. With 2009 sales of 244 million tons and $6 billion in revenues, Peabody fuels 10 percent of U.S. power and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.