Horse Canyon Mine is an inactive underground coal mine located in Emery and Carbon Counties, Utah, within the Book Cliffs Coal Field, about 150 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The mine was initially opened by the Defense Plant Corporation in 1942 as the source of metallurgical grade coal for the Geneva Steel Works in Orem, Utah. The mine was sold to U.S. Steel Corporation in 1946, which operated the mine until January 1984, when all mining was permanently suspended.
U.S. Steel submitted a permanent mining and reclamation plan permit application on March 17, 1981 for the operations existing at that time consisting of 3,120 acres of underground mine workings, and approximately 87 acres of surface disturbances. On October 15, 1982, U.S. Steel informed the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining that it was temporarily suspending mining operations at the Horse Canyon (Geneva) Mine. And in January 1984, U.S. Steel informed the Division of its plans to permanently suspend mining operations.
On November 11, 1984, Kaiser Steel Corporation purchased the Horse Canyon Mine property from U.S. Steel, and submitted a permanent program reclamation bond in the amount of $918,649. Kaiser Steel indicated to the Division that it would maintain the operations in a temporary suspension status pending further corporate decisions as to the future use of the facilities.
However, on February 13, 1987, Kaiser Coal Corporation (successor in interest to Kaiser Steel) filed a petition for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, Title 11, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. A reclamation plan was submitted on February 2, 1990 by Kaiser Coal's bankruptcy estate which was accepted by the Division.
On April 5, 1990, Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) acquired the Horse Canyon Mine and the Division approved transfer of Kaiser Coal's permit rights to IPA on August 10, 1990. During 1990 and 1991, IPA reclaimed the majority of the surface disturbance leaving only a main facilities pad with buildings essential for future mine operations.
The permit was issued on May 6, 1991, renewed May 6, 1996, and Phase I bond release was approved February 5, 1997 for part of the area. Currently, there is the potential for future mining at Horse Canyon Mine.
Mine Area Map