Wishbone Hill Coal Mine

Background

The Wishbone Hill Mine is a proposed mine site in the Matanuska Valley approximately 5 miles west of downtown Sutton, AK.  The site is on the border of the Sutton/Alpine and Buffalo/Soapstone Community Council boundaries and is less than a mile from a residential area.  Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. began exploration work in this area in the summer of 2010 and has already found a probably buyer for the coal. This area was historically mined for coal as early as 1916 and was most recently mined in the 1980s.  The lease area has been the site of a number of coal fires, some burning since the 1960's, and has been the focus of a multi-million dollar effort to supress the fires.

In 1997 Usibelli purchased the 8000 acre Wishbone Hill Mine site, estimated to have 14 million tons of bituminous coal (as opposed to the lower quality subbituminous coal currently mined by Usibelli), that could be recovered using strip mining techniques.   However, the current mine proposed by Usibelli would only mine 6 million tons of coal, at the rate of 500,000 tons per year.

Just west of Wishbone Hill is the site of the successful Moose Creek Salmon Restoration project, which has attempted to salvage the damage done to the river by previous coal mining and railroad development in the area. Locals are concerned re-opening of this mine would reverse their progress in restoring the creek, and that the mine and mine access road would be located very close to residences.

Usibelli possesses renewable exploration permits for this mine, due to be reviewed in 2011. The company would need to obtain production permits before mining, which could occur as early as 2012.  The mine would receive power from the nearby grid and would transport coal either via truck to Seward, truck to Port MacKenzie or through creation of a new rail spur to the site.

Latest News

In June 2010, the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission voted against allowing Usibelli to build an access road but the Assembly subsequently approved conditional access.  During the same month, the nearby Chickaloon Village Traditional Council announced that they planned to oppose all aspects of the mine.  In July, Usibelli was granted a permit by the DNR and began exploratory drilling in the area.  In August, the Athabascan tribe, the Castle Mountain Coalition, and local residents filed appeals against the July permit decision.  In October 2011, Usibelli withdrew their air quality permit application, pending further studies.

Both exploration and creation of a feasibility study are currently underway.

Date Created: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:46:36 -0800

Last Modified: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:29:48 -0800