Jacobs Ranch is a large

open-pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

located 15 miles southeast of Wright, Wyoming in the coal-rich

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very s ...

. In 2007, the mine produced 38.1 million short tons of coal, making it the fourth-largest coal mine by production in the United States.

Information

Until 2009 the Jacobs Ranch mine was owned by

Rio Tinto Energy America Rio Tinto Energy America (RTEA) was a wholly owned American subsidiary of the England and Australia-based mining giant, the Rio Tinto Group, headquartered in Gillette, Wyoming, United States. The company, previously known as Kennecott Energy after ...

, an American-based subsidiary of the international mining giant Rio Tinto Group. In early 2009, Rio Tinto reached an agreement to sell the Jacobs Ranch mine to

Arch Coal Arch Resources, previously known as Arch Coal, is an American coal mining and processing company. The company mines, processes, and markets bituminous and sub-bituminous coal with low sulfur content in the United States. Arch Resources is the se ...

for $761 million.

References

Mines in Campbell County, Wyoming Former Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries Mines in Wyoming Coal mines in the United States {{energy-stub