RESOURCE CONTEXT
Large Foothills coking-coal endowment; provincial reserve figure dated (33 Gt all ranks, 2016)
High-quality Foothills coking coal under the tightest land-use policy in the province.
COAL MINECoal
Grassy Mountain
Northback Holdings (Hancock) · Redesigned ≈2.5 Mt/yr; application expected end-2026
AER approved exploration and water diversion 15 May 2025; water licence contested.
GEOLOGICAL SETTING
Prospectivity envelopes for Metallurgical (coking) coal
- Inner Foothills coking-coal belt (Grande Cache–Cadomin–Crowsnest)Producing / drill-provenLower Cretaceous Luscar / Kootenay Group bituminous coal in thrust-folded seams
Development regime
- Tenure
- Coal lease under the Coal Conservation Act — new Crown leases not being accepted (Feb 2025).
- Royalty
- 1 % of mine-mouth revenue pre-payout; post-payout 1 % plus 13 % of net revenue; CIMI signals higher rates for new mines.
DATASETS TO STACK HERE
Public layers that cover this site
- Bedrock geology of Alberta (Map 600 tiles)Alberta Geological SurveyWhich formation is at the bedrock surface: the first screen for outcropping targets such as silica sand, limestone, ironstone, bentonite, ammonite shell and shallow coal.
- Bedrock geology polygons (DIG 2013-0018, queryable)Alberta Geological SurveyAttribute-level bedrock mapping for screening host lithologies; heavy, so it loads only when zoomed in.
- Bedrock structures: faults, thrusts, fold axesAlberta Geological SurveyFault corridors focus brines, helium and MVT fluids and control Foothills coal geometry.
- AGS prospective areas for mineral explorationAlberta Geological SurveyThe survey's own view of where each commodity is prospective; compare with the Atlas knowledge-driven envelopes.
- NRCan Map 900A: producing mines, mineral areas, oil & gas fieldsNatural Resources CanadaOfficial federal view of producing operations to cross-check the Atlas mine inventory.
- Coal mine boundaries (Alberta Energy)Alberta Energy and MineralsWhere coal has been or is being mined; coal-zone geology itself is published in AGS reports, not as a service.
- Coal Development Policy (1976) categories 1–4Government of AlbertaCategory 1 = no exploration; Category 2 = no open pit. The decisive constraint for metallurgical coal.
- Coal agreementsAlberta Energy and MineralsExisting coal rights are the only route to a new mine under the Coal Industry Modernization Initiative.
NEARBY OPERATIONS
Within reach
- Korite ammolite mines (St. Mary River)Industrial mineral · Korite International (Buffalo Rock Mining) · ≈116 kmOperating
- Exshaw cement plant & quarryQuarry · Lafarge Canada (Holcim) · ≈162 kmOperating
- Exshaw lime plant & quarryQuarry · Graymont · ≈163 kmOperating
- Thunderstone Rundle rock quarry (Canmore)Quarry · Thunderstone Quarries · ≈169 kmOperating
- Avanti Helium — Greater Knappen (Alberta)Helium · Avanti Helium · ≈200 kmExploration
- Steveville helium plantHelium · Keranic Industrial Gas (ex-Royal Helium) · ≈236 kmIdled