A JEWEL IN THE DESERT: BHP BILLITON'S SAN JUAN UNDERGROUND MINE

摘要

Stretching across parts of three states, the Navajo Nation--America's largest Native American tribe by population and having more acreage than any other reservation in the country--is blessed with several massive tracts of good coal deposits. On the eastern side of the reservation, in New Mexico, BHP Billiton opened three surface mines, La Plata to the north, San Juan in the middle and Navajo to the south, all adjacent to the Navajo Reservation. Power plants were constructed to burn coal from these mines and supporting infrastructure was also created to help transport the coal. About 40 years after large scale surface mining began in the region, today's operators are responding to diminishing surface reserve bases, higher stripping ratios, an aging workforce, changing regulatory environments, and a need to prove that the coal industry is not the pariah that has captured the popular imagination.