The coal technology firm's fight to revive coal mining at a site near Sheridan has been in contention for almost a decade.
However, two months ago, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Protection found the company's revised application for the requisite permit to be legally complete. Since then, the Agency has accepted public comments on the proposed mine.
Over 100 comments flooded the Agency by Thursday's deadline, ranging from emphatic support for the project's economic promise to heated opposition to the concern that surrounding land would have sustained permanent damage.
The business aims to construct a vertically integrated "coal campus" in northern Wyoming — full of a research complex and a manufacturing center. In addition to this lofty proposal, Brook Mining Company, a subsidiary of Ramaco, purchased land near Sheridan to resurrect coal mining operations to feed the research facilities.
The business aims to step away from thermal coal generation and to find other uses for coal beyond the production of electricity.
“We seek a new higher tech, higher value future not only for our coal mining, coal research and advanced carbon manufacturing, but also for the communities where they will grow,” Ramaco Carbon CEO Randall Atkins said in a statement. “We want to start at a time when Wyoming now needs it most.”
According to the Department of Environmental Quality, the company demanded a license to mine 250,000 tons of coal a year for five years. Atkins says he wants to ultimately increase the output of coal
Several million tons a year at the mine, located eight miles northwest of Sheridan.
Approximately a dozen technical assessments have been carried out by state environmental regulators since the company submitted its initial proposal in 2014. The Secretary of the Environmental Quality Division must now make a final statement on the surface coal mining permit.
The project's proponents note the potential economic development that the project might have generated for the county and the state of Sheridan, particularly at a time when demand for thermal coal has declined dramatically. In a statement, Engineer Brady Lewis said the coal mine will "provide high-quality jobs that hold our Wyoming families together."
In support of Ramaco 's vision, the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce also wrote: "Ramaco has taken the utmost care to complete a very thorough application for authorisation and is investing in our community," the members wrote.
According to a comment from the Wyoming Mining Association, "mines are needed."
“Ramaco Carbon’s mine and investment into coal technology research, development and manufacturing will be a key venture for our mining sector in Wyoming moving forward,” Executive Director of the association wrote in a comment.
Coal tech company 's offer to mine clears up the big hurdle
Nevertheless, many Wyoming residents, especially those living in the Tongue River Valley near the proposed mine site, have expressed ongoing concern about the possible environmental impacts and future financial liabilities associated with the Brook Mine.
The Powder River Basin Resource Council, a grassroots landowner group, stated that the application for a permit was still "incomplete and deficient." It outlined a number of concerns related to the impact of the project on land , water and air. The group also argued that the proposal of the coal industry did not resolve concerns relating to public health, including what it perceived to be an elevated risk of subsidence, or the potential for land to collapse if underground mining occurred.
Several comments found the area's historic and comprehensive leisure opportunities to be at risk if active mining were to return.
“As an outdoor recreationist, I use the Tongue River corridor for boating, birding, and hiking or skiing year-round, and the proposed mine would virtually put an end to these forms of recreation,” said Gillian Malone, a member of the Powder River Basin Resource Council. “The proposed mine not only represents a completely incompatible use for this pristine area from the human standpoint, but it threatens a large number of nesting and migrating birds, including raptors and water fowl, and many other species of wildlife that occupy the Tongue River corridor.”
Certain comments from organizations such as the Tongue River Water Users Association suggested that they believed the project would damage vital water supplies, such as wells and groundwater.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department gave suggestions for the conservation of wild animals and other wildlife within fragile habitat by restricting growth for certain periods of the year. The Agency also hopes to collaborate with the company to ensure that local hunting and fishing opportunities are secured when mining takes place.
In the meantime, the owner of the project defended his updated submission, saying that he had undergone a number of thorough evaluations by technical experts.
“These career experts at the DEQ are people who live and work here in our community. They have a stake in getting it right, and they have reviewed coal mining permits for a living, for decades,” said Atkins, Ramaco Carbon’s CEO. “After eight years of planning, study, review and comment they have said this permit is more than ready.”
