Lee Ranch Mine shipped 5.8 million tons in 2007, and owns or controls approximately 155 million tons of recoverable low sulfur coal reserves. Located about 35 miles northwest of Grants, N.M., Lee Ranch Mine was opened in 1984 by Santa Fe Pacific Minerals to supply coal to Western Fuels Association and Tucson Electric Power under long-term contracts that run through 2014 and 2010, respectively. Unit trains ship the coal to power plants in Prewitt, N.M., and Springerville, Ariz.

 

More than 260 mine employees use a combination of dragline and truck/shovel for overburden removal to uncover three to five coal seams ranging from one to six feet thick. Overburden removal is a continuous, seven-day-a-week process with coal loading on the day shift, five days a week. The coal is hauled from the pit by truck to the processing plant for sizing, sampling, analysis and blending to customer specifications. Trains are loaded by conveying coal from three 15,000-ton silos. A 60-inch belt conveyor delivers the coal from the silos to a batch weighing system that loads each car to capacity. It takes approximately four hours to load a 100-car unit train.

 

In 2006, Lee Ranch employees were honored by the U.S. Department of Labor for operating the safest surface mine in America. Last year, employees also were honored with the Outstanding Safe Operator of the Year Award by the New Mexico Mining Association. Since its first year of operation in 1985, Lee Ranch has been honored more than 12 times as New Mexico's safest coal mine with fewer than 250 employees. Sponsored by the New Mexico State Mine Inspector and New Mexico Mining Association, the Outstanding Safe Operator Award was created specifically for Lee Ranch to recognize the mine's unparalleled safety performance. Lee Ranch Mine also received the 1994 Excellence in Surface Mining Reclamation Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining.

 

Lee Ranch became a part of Peabody Energy in June 1993. Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2007 sales of 238 million tons and $4.6 billion in revenues. Its coal products fuel approximately 10 percent of U.S. electricity and more than 2 percent of worldwide electricity. The company is serving global coal demand from electricity generators and steelmakers, and is growing to serve new global customers and emerging Btu Conversion markets.