Spring Creek Mine

Spring Creek Mine is located northwest of Decker, Montana in the northwest section of the Powder River Basin. The mine was acquired by Rio Tinto Energy America in 1993 and previously owned by NERCO Mining Company, a mining and natural resource company of PacifiCorp.

The Spring Creek Mine mines the Anderson-Dietz seam in four pits. The site is 6,700 acres and the average thickness of the seam is 80 feet. The seam ranges from approximately 50-220 feet below the surface. The typical average quality of the coal is 9,350 Btu subbituminous thermal coal.

At year-end 2006, Spring Creek Mine had approximately  3,100 acres disturbed and 600 acres completely reclaimed.

Spring Creek Mine is permitted for 20 million tons of coal a year. Coal mined from Spring Creek is sold to electric power generation and heating utilities, industrials, schools and hospitals in the states of Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New Hampshire and various Canadian provinces.

As of December 31, 2006 Spring Creek Mine employs 185 people in a nonunion environment. Thirty-four percent of the Spring Creek workforces have more than 15 years of service with Rio Tinto Energy America. In May 2005 Spring Creek employees accomplished three years with no lost-time incidents.

2006 Awards received by RTEA
Other Awards received by RTEA