Navajo Mine's Goal: To Strip Coal And Reclaim Land At The Same Rate

Now producing 35,000 tpd of coal from a deposit whose estimated reserves total 1.1 billion t, the Navajo mine of Utah International Inc. near Farmington, N. M., is the largest open-pit coal operation in the US. The history of this mine began in 1953 when, foreseeing the growing need for electrical power in the southwest, Utah International obtained a prospecting permit from the Navajo tribe. The lease, now covering 31,000 acres of the 12-million acre New Mexico-Utah-Arizona Navajo Indian reservation, was entered in 1957; in the next 3 years, Utah International negotiated with the State of New Mexico for water rights on the San Juan River, and finalized an agreement with the Arizona Public Service Co. to provide coal for the proposed Four Corners power-generating plant near Farmington.