West Elk Mine: The Conversion From An Exhausting To A Forcing Ventilation System

The West Elk Mine is located near Somerset, Colorado approximately 70 miles southeast of Grand Junction, Colorado and 72 miles southwest of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on state highway 133 (Figure 1). The West Elk Mine was opened January 20, 1982 as the Mount Gunnison #1 Mine operated by the West Elk Coal Company, a division of ARCO Coal. In the early 1990?s ARCO changed the mine name to West Elk Mine and the operating company was renamed Mountain Coal Company. Arch Coal, Inc. purchased the West Elk Mine in 1998. West Elk Mine has produced coal from three different seams. Coal was first mined from the F Seam, the upper most seam in the stratigraphic sequence, from 1982 through 1991. Coal was produced from the B Seam, the lower most seam, starting with continuous miners in 1991 and transitioning to longwall mining in 1992and continued on through October 2008. The development of the E Seam, which is the middle seam in the stratigraphic column, started in 2004 with longwall production commencing in 2008. The ventilation conversion from exhausting to forcing for the E Seam portion of the West Elk Mine was implemented in late October 2009.