Centralia Coal Mine

Centralia Coal Mine is a coal mine operated by the Canadian based TransAlta Corporation. The TransAlta coal mine operation is referred to as the TransAlta Centralia Mining (TCM). The coal mine is located approximately 5 miles northeast of the city of Centralia, in Lewis County, in the U.S. state of Washington.

The Centralia Coal Mine is Washington state's largest coal mine, is located 5 miles northeast of Centralia. The mined coal is supplied exclusively to the adjacent coal-fired power plant called the Centralia Steam Plant.

The power plant operated by TransAlta Centralia Generation LLC and the coal mine is operated by TransAlta Centralia Mining. TransAlta, a Canadian corporation, took over ownership of the Centralia Mine in May 2000. The mine was formerly owned and operated by PacifiCorp.

The Centralia Mine completed its 31st year of production in 2001, producing 4,624,245 short tons of subbituminous coal, 354,481 short tons more than it produced in 2000. The mine's average annual production over the last 5 years was 4.4 million tons per year; average annual production over the life of the mine was 4.3 million tons per year. Officials of TransAlta Centralia are planning to increase annual production at the mine to more than 5 million tons per year and are looking at another 25 years of production from the mine.

Coal production in 2001 at the Centralia Mine came from 4 open pits. Coalbeds mined were the Upper and Lower Thompson, the Big Dirty and Little Dirty seams, and the Smith seam.

These coalbeds are part of the Skookumchuck Rock Formation, which is composed of nearshore marine and nonmarine sedimentary rocks. The Skookumchuck Rock belongs to the upper member of the Eocene Puget Group.

On November 27, 2006, TramsAlta stopped operations at the mine and is now using coal from the Powder River Basin. The mine employed about 600 workers at the time of the closure.

References

* [http://www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/pdf/ WASHINGTON GEOLOGY VOL. 30, NO. 1/2 JULY 2002]