Decker Coal Company is located in the northwest section of the Powder River
Basin, southeast of Spring Creek Coal in Big Horn County, Montana. Decker Coal
is a 50-50 joint venture between Level 3 Communication and
Rio Tinto Energy America (RTEA). RTEA purchased the share held by NERCO, a
PacifiCorp subsidiary in 1993. Peter Kiewit Sons, Inc. is under contract
to manage the Decker mine. Decker Coal employs 131 people.
The West Decker mine has two seams: Dietz 1 with an average seam thickness of
52 feet and Dietz 2 with an average seam thickness of 15 feet. At the East
Decker mine, Dietz 1 typically splits to Dietz 1 Upper with an average seam
thickness of 27 feet and Dietz 1 Lower with an average seam thickness of 18
feet. The average coal quality at Decker is 9500 Btu subbituminous thermal coal.
Decker Coal is permitted to produce 12 million tons of coal per year. Decker
Coal has 6921 acres of total disturbance, including 1966 acres that has been
completely reclaimed. Coal mined from Decker Coal is primarily marketed to
utilities in the Midwest.
