State

Black Mesa mine seeking new customers

Friday, May 25, 2007 12:38 AM CDT

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - The owners of the Black Mesa mine on the Hopi and Navajo reservations in northeast Arizona hope to find other outlets for coal from the mine, shuttered since a power plant in Nevada closed in January 2006.

Peabody Western Coal Co. and officials with the tribes that own the land are seeking other customers for the mine's output, which had been piped in a slurry line for more than 30 years to the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin.

The Mohave plant was shut down after its operator and majority owner, Southern California Edison, decided against spending nearly $750 million to update its pollution control equipment to meet the terms of a settlement with environmental groups. An additional $200 million was required to upgrade the pipeline and $100 million to secure a new water supply for the pipeline, pushing the total costs in 2002 dollars above $1 billion.

The owners, which include SCE, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Nevada Power Company, and the Salt River Project in Arizona, decided that returning the plant to operation wasn't worth the cost.

That's left the Black Mesa mine without a customer.

Building a power plant near the site, facilities to turn the coal into gas or rail lines to take the coal to other users have been considered, said Hopi tribe attorney Scott Canty.

‘‘There's a number of options that we're exploring,'' Canty said.

A spokeswoman for Peabody confirmed the company planned to reopen the mine and was seeking other outlets for the coal.

The mine was long an important economic engine on the reservations, providing hundreds of high-paying jobs and $29 million in yearly royalties to the Navajo Nation.