Kayenta Mine
| Location | |
|---|---|
 Kayenta mine
|
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| Location | Navajo Indian Reservation, Navajo County |
| State | Arizona |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 36°31′36″N 110°25′52″W / 36.52667°N 110.43111°WCoordinates: 36°31′36″N 110°25′52″W / 36.52667°N 110.43111°W |
| History | |
| Opened | 1973 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Peabody Energy |
| Website | http://www.peabodyenergy.com |
The Kayenta mine is a surface coal mine operated by Peabody Western Coal Company (a subsidiary of Peabody Energy) on the Navajo Indian Reservation in northern Arizona. About 400 acres are mined and reclaimed each year, providing about 8 million tons of coal annually to the Navajo Generating Station.
The Kayenta mine is located near the northern edge of Black Mesa, a 5,400 square mile highland plateau in northeast Arizona that contains extensive coal deposits in several geologic formations.
Since about 1300 AD, the Hopi had extracted coal from the area for pottery firing and domestic heating. In the early 1900s, limited surveying of the coal field was made and a number of small underground mines were put into production, supplying local reservation schools and communities in the region.
The coal field received increased attention beginning in 1950 when the Navajo - Hopi Long Range Rehabilitation Act was enacted in response to dire economic conditions on the reservations. The Act promoted economic development and better utilization of the reservations’ natural resources.
As a result, the strata and coal deposits of Black Mesa were more extensively studied; and in 1961 and 1964 Sentry Royalty Company, a subsidiary of Peabody Coal Company, was issued drilling and exploration permits on the Mesa to determine areas where coal could be economically recovered.
In 1964 and 1966, Sentry entered into mining lease agreements with the tribes for 64,848 acres. The first lease was made in 1964 for 24,858 acres of land held exclusively by the Navajo Tribe, designated Navajo Coal Lease No. 14-20-0603-8580, or N-8580 for short. The additional 40,000 acres were leased in 1966 in the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area, leases being entered into with each of the two tribes – Joint Mineral Lease No. 14-20-0450-5743, aka J-5743, with the Hopi tribe, and 14-20-0603-9910, aka J-9910, with the Navajo Tribe. When the Joint Use Area was later partitioned between the tribes in 1974, much of the mine lease area and surface rights ended up with Navajo Nation, but the two tribes retained joint and equal interest in the coal and other minerals under the partitioned lands.
Peabody developed two separate mines within the leasehold area – the Black Mesa mine and Kayenta mine. The Black Mesa mine, located on 20,775 acres in the southwestern section of the leasehold area, began operation in 1970 supplying the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada. The Kayenta mine, on 44,073 acres in the northern and eastern sections, began operation in 1973 supplying the Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona.
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Wikipedia