The Cordero Rojo Mine is a
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
mining
Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...
complex located in the
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
in the United States, in the coal-rich
Powder River Basin. The mine is of
open pit construction and employs several
dragline excavators. Two coal-processing facilities are located on-site, and crushed coal is shipped by rail to
electric utility
An electric utility, or a power company, is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. Electric utilities are ...
customers in the south and west of the United States.
The mine employs between 430
and 540
people.
The mining complex is wholly owned by Navajo Transitional Energy Company, who acquired the mine at bankruptcy auction in 2019. Previously, the mine was owned by Cloud Peak Energy who acquired the mine in 2010 from Rio Tinto Energy America.
The mine was formerly owned by the mining company
Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Río Tinto, in Hu ...
, thru its subsidiary
Rio Tinto Energy America. It was formed in 1997 from the consolidation of two previously existing mines, the Cordero mine (purchased by Rio Tinto in 1993) and the Caballo Rojo mine (purchased in 1997).
The mine produced between 34 and 36 million tons of coal per year in the years 2004 to 2006,
over 40 million tons of coal in 2007, and 22.8 million tons in 2015, making the Cordero Rojo the fourth-largest producer of coal in the United States.
[http://www.eia.gov/coal/annual/pdf/table9.pdf ]
References
Mines in Campbell County, Wyoming
Former Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries
Mines in Wyoming
Coal mines in the United States
Coal mining in Wyoming
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