Jacobs Ranch Mine

Jacobs Ranch Mine employs 603 people as of
December 31, 2006 and is located fifteen miles southeast of Wright, Wyoming in the southern portion of the Powder River Basin. Rio Tinto Energy America acquired the 9,284 acre permitted area from Kerr-McGee Coal Corporation in 1998. In 2001, Jacobs Ranch was the successful bidder for the North Jacobs coal lease tract and added 537 million tons of in-place coal to the reserve. The permitted area has more recently been expanded to encompass an area of 15,625 acres. There are 4,967 acres of reclaimed land at Jacobs Ranch as of year-end 2006. The majority of the reclaimed acres are used to summer graze approximately 900 head of cattle.

Up to three seams of coal are mined from two pits at Jacobs Ranch: Upper, Middle and Lower Wyodak. The Wyodak seam is the principal economic coal seam in the Wyoming portion of the Powder River Basin. The upper Wyodak has an average thickness of 11 feet. The Middle Wyodak has an average thickness of 42 feet while the Lower Wyodak averages 5 feet. The typical average quality of the coal at Jacob’s is 8,750 Btu subbituminous coal.

Jacobs Ranch is permitted to produce 55 million tons of coal a year. Coal mined from Jacobs Ranch is shipped primarily to the midwestern and southeastern United States. Among Jacobs Ranch's most recent benchmarks was the shipment of its 500 millionth ton in 2004. In addition, during 2007, RTEA and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation finalized a conservation easement. Click here for more information on the easement.

2006 Awards received by RTEA
Other Awards received by RTEA