Colowyo Mine

Colowyo Mine is located in the northwest section of the Uinta Basin, between Craig and Meeker, Colorado, in Moffat County. Rio Tinto Energy America acquired the Colowyo Mine in 1994 from the W.R. Grace Company. Eight different coal seams are mined sequentially at the site. The seams range from 18 inches to 14 feet thick. The typical average quality of coal rates at 10,325 average Btu subbituminous thermal coal.

Colowyo is permitted to mine 9 million tons of coal per year.  Coal mined from Colowyo is sold to utilities in the western half of the United States, primarily into Colorado, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona.

As of December 31, 2006, Colowyo Mine employs 300 people. The majority of employees work in production/maintenance with a small number employed in management and administration.

The Sentinels of Safety is an award that recognizes a United States surface coal mine with the best safety performance for the year. Colowyo earned the Sentinels of Safety in 1991, 1995, and 1997, and was first runner-up in 1996. In 1998, Colowyo set an all-time U.S. Department of Labor safety record for a single surface mine by working 2.6 million hours over a three-year period without a lost-time accident. In 1996, 1997 and 2000 through 2005, Colowyo received the Colorado Mine Health and Safety Recognition award for developing and successfully implementing a variety of internal safety initiatives.

2006 Awards received by RTEA
Other Awards received by RTEA