October 15, 1999

Coal mining has mainly been concentrated in Carbon, Emery, and Sevier counties. Residents there, as well as local and state government officials, are keenly interested in the future of this important industry. A recent report by Utah Geological Survey scientists further defines the potential for maintaining the coal mining industry in central Utah. This report, the first in a series of studies covering Utah’s two producing coalfields, the Book Cliffs and Wasatch Plateau fields, examines the coal resources in the northern half of the Wasatch Plateau coalfield, an area that accounted for 64 percent of the state’s coal production in 1998.

The study found that 129 years of mining had removed, or made unminable, only 30 percent of the original 5.4 billion tons of minable coal. Thus, 3.8 billion tons of coal remain for future mining in coalbeds that are at least four feet thick and under less than 3,000 feet of cover. The study documents that past mining removed the thicker, more easily reached portions of the coalbeds, and that the percentage of the in-ground coal actually recovered is between 30 and 36 percent.

Although recovery has improved in recent years with the implementation of improved technology, future mining in many areas will involve recovering resources from generally thinner and deeper coalbeds. About 28 percent of the remaining coal resources are in beds that are 4 to 6 feet thick, or thinner than the coals currently being mined. In addition, coal mining is subject to ever-more-stringent environmental restrictions which will further limit the amount of coal available for future mining.

While it is impossible to predict the impact of changes in technology or market conditions on future coal mining, the study projects how much longer current mining practices could extend into the next century. The shallow, thick, low-cost resources will be exhausted in about half a century at current extraction rates, the study concludes, while deeper, thinner, and more costly coal resources will be available beyond that time but in smaller quantities and at a higher price.

The UGS’s study was a cooperative project with the U.S. Geological Survey, which provided funding and information in the National Coal Resources Data System. The study used data from more than 600 drill holes and measured sections along with a Geographic Information System to produce maps showing the spatial distribution and thickness of individual coalbeds from which the resources were estimated. The published study, entitled The Available Coal Resources for the Nine 7.5-Minute Quadrangles in the Northern Wasatch Plateau Coalfield, Carbon and Emery Counties, Utah and designated Circular 100, is available at the Natural Resources Map & Bookstore at 1594 West North Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah.